


Silver Lining

by bansheequeen (queenbanshee), xtremeroswellian



Category: Smallville
Genre: Bestest Cousins, F/M, Lois is a matchmaker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-05
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:48:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 50,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24026869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/queenbanshee/pseuds/bansheequeen, https://archiveofourown.org/users/xtremeroswellian/pseuds/xtremeroswellian
Summary: Lois and Clark introduce Chloe and Oliver when they are both dealing with a lot in their lives. Completely AU. Season 7-ish.
Relationships: Clark Kent & Chloe Sullivan, Clark Kent/Lois Lane, Lois Lane & Chloe Sullivan, Oliver Queen & Clark Kent, Oliver Queen & Lois Lane, Oliver Queen/Chloe Sullivan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 8





	1. Chapter 1

“Perfect,” Lois announced to Clark as she finished setting a vase of flowers at the dining room table, completing the look and atmosphere she’d intended to set for the night. The flowers were fresh, right from Mrs. Kent’s flower bed. Bright red and orange and yellow tulips. Her cousin’s favorite. Chloe should be home from the Planet any minute now.

Clark cocked his head as he stared at the flowers. “Why are you doing all this?”

“I just want things to look nice,” she said innocently.

He gave her a look and arched his eyebrows. 

“What?” Lois shook her head, arranging the flowers again and then backing away to study the scene. 

“What are you planning?” He asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, shrugging her shoulders.

“ _Lois_ ,” Clark pressed. “You’re not trying to set them up, are you?”

Her eyes widened slightly at that. “Chloe and Oliver?” She cocked her head, staring at him as if this was a possibility she hadn’t considered before. “That’s a _great_ idea, Clark! I can’t believe you thought of it before me.” 

Clark frowned hard and shook his head. “No, I think it’s a terrible idea!” he said quickly.

“Just a second ago, you suggested it!” She shook her head, too. “Think of all the stuff they have in common.” Her face brightened.

“I _didn’t_!” he said impatiently. “I thought you were. Lois, Chloe hasn’t even been divorced for a month,” he pointed out.

“Not _legally_. They’ve been separated for ages,” she pointed out in return. 

“This is a bad idea,” he said again, shaking his head. “He has been... odd since, you know,” Clark muttered, looking down.

Lois sighed. “Well, it’s out of our hands. If they hit it off, great. If they don’t, no harm no foul,” she said, shrugging and turning toward the kitchen entrance as she heard the front door open. “Shh. She’s home.” 

Clark sighed in defeat and turned toward the oven to check on the food.

Lois on the other hand grinned when he turned his back, pleased. “Chloe! Welcome home!” she called.

“Hey,” Chloe greeted as she pulled her purse from over her shoulder and frowned when she smelled the food. It wasn’t unusual for Clark to be cooking, but added with the way Lois was dressed and the flowers she saw on the table from the corner of her eyes, she knew instantly something was up. “What’s going on?”

“An old friend of ours is coming to dinner tonight. We haven’t seen him in awhile,” Lois told her with a small smile. 

“Oh,” Chloe said as she frowned more at her cousin. “I can just go grab something at the Talon,” she offered, not wanting to intrude even though all she really wanted was to go to bed. 

“Absolutely not,” Lois answered. “We made a ton of food, and besides, you’re family. You’re not intruding.” 

She considered her cousin for a moment then nodded. “Do I have time for a shower?”

Relaxing at how easily Chloe agreed to eat with them, she nodded, too. “Yeah, we’ve got about forty-five minutes still. The casserole and the ham are still in the oven.” 

“You made a whole ham?” Chloe asked, her eyes widening a little as she glanced toward Clark, who was apparently pretending really hard to pay attention on the food. She turned back to her cousin. “Who is this friend?”

“You’ve seen Clark eat, right?” Lois arched her eyebrows, deliberately ignoring Chloe’s question.

“Lois,” she said, arching her eyebrows back as she held her breath, her eyes widening a moment later. “Please tell me you didn’t invite Jimmy,” she said, glancing over toward Clark. She knew Lois wouldn’t but he might and she had heard rumors that Jimmy was in town.

She made a face. “Hell _no_ ,” she retorted, narrowing her eyes. 

“Then who?” Chloe asked even though she visibly relaxed. 

“His name is Oliver,” Lois told her, arching an eyebrow. She glanced back at Clark, pursing her lips. “We sorta...dated for a brief time a few years ago.” 

“Oh,” Chloe frowned a little and shrugged. She didn’t really remember her cousin dating an Oliver but Lois’ relationships aside from Clark usually lasted about as long as her own. “Okay, I’ll go shower, then.”

Lois nodded, offering her a small smile. “All right. Then you can tell me all about your day.” 

“I’ll tell you about the apartments,” Chloe told her before starting upstairs.

She almost groaned at that, but sighed, instead, turning to look at Clark with a frown.

Clark turned to look at her, his eyes widening a little when he saw the look on her face. “What?”

“I don’t _want_ her to move out,” she admitted.

His face softened and he nodded. “I know. I think she needs to stay at least until next year.”

Lois moved over to his side, wrapping her arms around his neck. “She needs us.” 

He wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head. “I know, she doesn’t know anyone outside of work people in Metropolis, she should stay.”

“Maybe if you talk to her,” she said hopefully.

Clark considered that for a moment. “I can try.”

She nodded, satisfied. One way or another, they’d convince her cousin that it was best if she stayed with them for awhile longer. And with any luck, she and Ollie would hit it off. Because the more Lois thought about it, the more perfect she thought they were for each other.

* * *

Chloe took her time showering and changing into comfortable yet decent clothes. The commute back and forth to the Planet plus apartment hunting was seriously tiring her out. She’d been looking as hard as her hours allowed her; before, after work and even during lunch when she could find an appointment nearby. As much as she loved her cousin and Clark, and as grateful as she was that they were letting her stay in Clark’s old room, she wasn’t really comfortable with the arrangements. 

With a deep breath, she made her way back downstairs, running a finger through her mostly dry hair and looked around. She was also not in the mood to see anyone else, let alone some guy she’d never met before but she was hardly in the position to make demands. “He’s still not here?” She asked her cousin as she entered the kitchen.

Lois rolled her eyes. “That’s Ollie for you. He believes that showing up five minutes late is classy.” 

Frowning, Chloe headed to the fridge and pulled out a can of coke. “How considerate.”

She shrugged, not wanting her cousin to get the wrong impression. “You just have to know him. He’s a good guy.” 

“Well, hopefully he won’t think I’m rude when I excuse myself, I’m exhausted,” she told her, mostly as a heads up as she sipped on her soda.

Lois frowned. “You can’t abandon me to the guys,” she complained.

“I have to be in Metropolis at eight tomorrow, Lo,” she said, shaking her head. “I will have to.”

“Well, we probably won’t be that late anyway.” She shrugged.

“Okay,” Chloe agreed, mostly because there was no point in continuing this conversation. 

“He’s driving up,” Clark announced a moment later, turning his attention toward them.

Lois smiled, heading toward the door. “Finally.” She unlocked and opened the door, folding her arms across her chest as she waited.

Reluctantly, Chloe set her soda on the counter and followed her cousin to the door. Her eyebrows arched when, a moment later, she saw an expensive looking SUV pulling up to the farm. 

The car stopped, the headlights shut off, and a tall blonde man climbed out of the driver’s seat. He seemed to linger at the vehicle for a minute longer than normal, as if he was gathering his courage. He smiled as he headed up the steps, lifting his hand in a small wave. “Lois,” he greeted.

She grinned. “Ollie.” She crossed the porch, hugging him.

Even though it was dark outside and the porch light wasn’t helping much, as the man made his way up the stairs to meet her cousin, Chloe was able to take a good look at his face, her eyes widening as she recognized him almost instantly. Lois had been on a date with _Oliver Queen_? And had never mentioned it? And now he was, somehow at the Kent farm and she suddenly felt like she should have bothered with make up.

“Good to see you, too,” he said softly, hugging her back and closing his eyes for a moment. Then he pulled away to look at her. “You look beautiful, as always.” 

And from the little conversation they were having, this had been more than ‘a date’, at the very least they seemed to be close friends. But Lois would never _not_ brag about the fact that she knew a billionaire so Chloe knew there was something extremely weird about this. It wasn’t until Chloe found herself staring at the man, noticing how tired he looked, that she forced herself to look away from him. 

“You look good, too, Ollie,” she told him with a smile. “Come on in. I want you to meet my cousin.” Her expression lit up. 

He couldn’t help but smile back at her, then shifting his gaze to the pretty blonde a few feet behind Lois. She was over a foot shorter than he was, with a fair complexion and curly hair. “Hi,” he greeted. “You must be Chloe.” 

And he knew her name? Chloe was going to kill her cousin, she couldn’t understand _why_ Lois hadn’t been honest about who he was. “Mr. Queen,” she greeted without thinking about it, after shooting her cousin a look and holding out her hand to the man.

“Oliver,” he corrected her with a small smile, shaking her hand. His eyes widened ever so slightly at the surge of electricity that shot through him at the touch, and he held his breath.

Chloe nearly pulled her hand away in surprise, it was almost like his hand was overly warm. “Oliver,” she echoed with a small smile of her own despite her wide eyes. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” he said quietly, locking eyes with her. Her eyes were the deepest green he’d ever seen.

“Nice meeting you, too,” she said just as quietly as she pulled her hand away and stepped aside so both her cousin and the billionaire could come inside. 

Oliver followed Lois into the farmhouse, glancing around and spotting Clark in the kitchen entryway. “Hey,” he said with a small smile, nodding at the younger man.

“Hey,” Clark greeted, smiling back at him. “Just in time, dinner is ready,” he announced. 

“Sorry I’m late,” he said honestly. “Busy day at the office.” Understatement.

Nodding, Clark pulled the food from the oven. “Busy for us, too.” 

Chloe, however, was watching the interaction closely, even more surprised by the realization that Clark also knew the man. Without hesitating, she reached for her cousin’s arm and pulled her back and away from the kitchen.

Lois blinked a few times in surprise, glancing sideways at Chloe and arching her eyebrows. “What?” she whispered.

“Oliver _Queen_?” She asked her cousin, her eyes wide as they got into the living room. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

Lois considered for a moment. “Honestly, once you know him for awhile, you don’t really think about the status anymore.” 

“That’s my point, Lois. You’ve obviously known him for a while, same with Clark and you never even brought him up before?” It made absolutely no sense, it was like she had entered the Twilight Zone or something. 

She hesitated, then sighed softly. “I know. I’m sorry.” 

“What’s going on?” Chloe pressed, but forced herself to calm down at the sincere apology. 

“We were dating but it was...complicated.” Lois pursed her lips. “And it’s been awhile. We kept things under wraps because of the press.” 

Chloe stared at her cousin for a moment. She couldn’t pretend it didn’t hurt her that Lois had never mentioned it, especially when it definitely seemed to be more than one date, but she didn’t want to make things awkward during dinner, so she was going to pull back on the questioning. Some. “You were actually dating, then?”

“Briefly. _Very_ briefly,” Lois said quickly. “I was in love with someone else. And so was he. And it turned out we were much better as good friends than romantic interests.” 

“Clark?” She guessed, knowing Lois’ crush on Clark was ancient. 

She nodded slightly, pursing her lips.

With a deep breath, Chloe nodded slightly. “You’ll tell me more _after_ he leaves,” she said, squinting at Lois. “Along with _why_ you didn’t tell me which Oliver it was.”

Lois smiled at her, nodding in agreement. “Of course.” 

Chloe nodded once more then rubbed her hands over her face. “Let’s go back, I guess.”

“Yeah, otherwise they’ll start wondering where we went and they’ll gossip.” Lois rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

“Right,” she said, squinting at Lois then starting back toward the kitchen.

“We don’t gossip,” Clark informed her when they walked into the kitchen. 

Chloe frowned at that, there was no way Clark would have heard that if not for his super hearing and for him to announce it like that... There was no way Oliver _knew_ , was there?

Oliver smirked, arching an eyebrow and looking over at Lois. “Maybe someone has a guilty conscience,” he teased.

Watching the three of them, Chloe was sure she had missed more than something. Shaking her head, she picked up her can of soda and sipped on it again. She hated feeling like she was missing information. 

“I think you got it,” Clark told Oliver.

“Hey, I don’t have a guilty conscience,” Lois said, shaking her head.

Clark reached for the wine bottle Lois had set on the counter and opened it easily. “Neither do we.” 

“Only because we came back before you had the chance,” she said sweetly, watching him open the bottle with his bare hands.

Chloe’s eyes widened even more as she turned to watch Oliver. When the man didn’t react at all, she _knew_ he had to know. 

“Men don’t gossip, Lois,” Clark informed her. 

Oliver felt Chloe’s gaze on him and he turned his gaze to meet hers, offering her a small smile. “I know,” he said quietly, nodding.

She blinked a couple of times when he spoke to her. “Know what?” She asked, straightening a little. 

“About Clark.” He arched an eyebrow. 

Lois smiled at that, ducking her head and moving over to her fiance, holding up two wine glasses as he poured them drinks.

“Well, that explains _that_ ,” she said, smiling a little at the billionaire then glancing over at Lois and Clark. They seemed perfectly comfortable with the man being there, and Clark obviously trusted him. She just had no idea _why_. 

“We’ll have to exchange stories sometime,” Oliver said with a tiny smile.

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly, smiling at him once again. 

Lois glanced between them, biting back a grin. So far, so good.

* * *

A couple of hours later, after the table had been cleared and Clark had brought out a still warm pie along with ice cream for dessert, Chloe found herself pretty relaxed. Sure, the two bottles of wine they had managed to finish between the four of them, plus the amazing food Clark had made helped, but also, she wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable anymore. Lois had ended up doing most of the talk during dinner and Chloe was completely okay with that. On top of that, Oliver seemed like a nice guy and not at all what she’d have expected from him. 

As she took a bite of the pie, she smiled at Clark. “You know, I think you almost manage to make them as good as you mom now,” she told him. 

“Almost?” Clark asked, arching an eyebrow at her. 

Oliver stifled a grin, ducking his head and lifting his glass up, taking another drink of wine. 

Lois actually chuckled. “Well, he does better than us.” 

“It’s really good,” she told him, sitting up. “But still missing a little something to be like Mrs. Kent’s.” 

“Maybe you just don’t remember mom’s well enough,” Clark dared, smirking. 

“It has been awhile,” Lois said, arching her eyebrows.

“I guess we’ll have to see when she comes into town next,” Chloe said, smirking back at him. “Lois and I will be the judge.” 

“You could have a cook-off,” Oliver suggested mischievously. 

“Exactly,” Chloe said, smiling at Oliver. 

“I guess we could...” Clark agreed, but not entirely sure about the idea.

Oliver smiled back at Chloe, amusement in his eyes as he finished off his glass of wine.

“It’s settled, then,” she said triumphantly then took another bite of pie.

Oliver took a bite of his pie, as well. It was very good, but since he’d never had anything made by Mrs. Kent, he had nothing to compare it to. He was, however, enjoying the evening and the light-hearted banter much more than he’d thought he might.

“Thanksgiving,” Clark said, then turned to Oliver. “Are you going to help them judge?”

He paused at that, holding his breath as he felt all their eyes on him. “Depends,” he said, sounding uncertain. “Is that an official invitation?” 

Chloe glanced at Clark, a little surprised then focused on Oliver once more. 

“Of course, you might actually be the only impartial judge,” Clark said with a smile.

He relaxed once more, smiling. “Well, I can’t say no to that.” 

“Great,” he agreed, glancing at Lois, knowing she’d approve of the invitation. 

Lois smiled at Clark brightly, nodding slightly though she didn’t say anything. She glanced over at Chloe, still smiling. 

Chloe smiled back at her cousin, then turned to Oliver. “It’s usually a good idea to stop eating about two days before Thanksgiving when you’re spending it here.”

“I’ll definitely have to keep that in mind.” He laughed softly, taking another bite of pie.

“Mom’s food really is the best,” Clark added, finishing his own pie.

“I’m not complaining about yours,” he told the other man with a faint smile. “I couldn’t tell you the last time I had an actual home-cooked meal that I didn’t make.” 

“Chloe and Lois are usually the same way, so I try to cook a couple times a week,” he admitted.

“I’ll definitely miss that when I move out,” Chloe said, smiling at Clark.

“Which you don’t have to be in a hurry about,” Lois added quickly. “Because we love having you here. Right, Clark?” 

“Definitely,” Clark agreed. 

“Thank you,” Chloe said sincerely. “But hopefully I’ll find a place by the end of the week.” It was just hard to find something that was both in a good location and within her budget. 

“Are you looking in Metropolis?” Oliver asked curiously.

“I am,” she told him. “I also work at the Planet so, the commute is kinda long.”

“Yeah, it is a long drive,” he agreed, nodding slightly.

“It is, unless you’re Clark,” she said, glancing over at him but he seemed to be in a quiet conversation with her cousin so she turned back to Oliver. “Are you driving back tonight?”

Oliver pursed his lips, considering, then nodded. “Yeah, I’ll have to wait for a bit, though. I’ve had a bit more to drink than I should have.” He drew in a breath. Fresh air and coffee would help. He hoped.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “I definitely couldn’t drive right now.”

“And you shouldn’t worry about it. We have a guest room, Ollie, and you’re welcome to crash in it.” Lois arched her eyebrows. “It’ll be safer.” 

“I’d offer to take you, but your car is here,” Clark said. “You really should take the guest room.”

He looked between them, then glanced at Chloe, hesitating. “I don’t want to intrude.” 

“I’m already intruding, so you don’t have to worry about that,” she said, smiling.

Oliver met her eyes, and smiled back faintly, nodding. “If you’re sure,” he said softly, glancing at Lois again, then to Clark.

“Of course we’re sure. You’re pretty much family, so suck it up,” Lois informed him.

“Yeah,” Clark said with a smile then stood up. “I’ll get the room set up.” 

Chloe stared at her cousin at the ‘family’ part. She still had no idea what was happening, she had only lived away from them for a couple of years, surely not that much had changed.

“Thank you,” Oliver said sincerely, rising to his feet, as well. “I’ll start cleaning up.” He picked up his plate, moving over and picking up Clark’s empty one, as well.

With a deep breath, Chloe kept her eyes on Lois but didn’t move from her seat. 

Lois glanced over at her, silent for a moment. Then she leaned in a little. “We’ll let the boys clean up. Come with me and I’ll fill you in and answer your questions.” 

“Thank you,” Chloe said, relaxing a little as she stood up. 

Nodding, she turned and headed for the stairs, grinning once she wasn’t facing Chloe. Her cousin was curious. And that was a great sign.


	2. Chapter 2

Chloe followed Lois outside after they both grabbed their coats. It was definitely starting to cool down. She was doing her best not to try too hard to figure out who Oliver was, and listen to her cousin instead, but it was hard to keep all the theories away from her head. 

Still, she wanted to listen first. So she slid her hands inside her coat pockets and glanced at Lois. “Okay, go.”

Lois couldn’t help but smile a little. “Ollie accidentally found out about Clark,” she admitted.

“How?” She asked, cocking her head.

She hesitated. “I can’t say too much about the how. Ollie has some...secrets of his own.” She glanced at her cousin sideways. “But he found out, and helped Clark out of a jam.” 

“You mean he...” Chloe murmured, cocking her head as she stared at Lois, eyes widening. She knew Clark wasn’t the only one out there helping people, they had met a couple of others when they were younger and she read the paper, well papers. 

Lois simply pursed her lips. “Like I said...he has some secrets of his own.” 

“Right.” She stared at Lois for a moment then took a deep breath. “So, you two reconnected when that happened?”

“If by we-two, you mean me and Clark, yes.” She drew in a breath. “Ollie and I only dated a couple of weeks when Clark got into trouble. When that happened, it sorta...made me realize how I felt about him and Ollie and I decided we were better off as just good friends.” 

“Oh, I didn’t realize he had helped Clark so long ago.” At least, it felt like a long time to her.

“A little over a year ago,” she told Chloe as they walked.

“I guess I missed a lot while I was in Kansas City,” she said quietly, glancing at Lois.

Lois was quiet for a few moments. “Believe me, I’ve wanted to tell you. I just wasn’t sure...” She glanced at her sideways. “You’ve had so much going on, Chloe.” 

“It’s okay,” she breathed, smiling at her cousin. She couldn’t exactly blame Lois when there was a lot she hadn’t told her about her and Jimmy, either.

“You’re here now. And if you want to do the whole investigative reporter slash behind the scenes hero stuff, I definitely wouldn’t mind the help. And the debriefing.” 

“I might take you up on that,” she said quietly. 

Lois smiled, nodding at her and draping her arm around Chloe’s shoulders. “All right, I know you must have a million other questions, so ask away. I’ll answer what I can.” 

“Well, I guess there’s a lot you can’t tell me,” she said. “Which, I get, I mean, with Clark and all. I don’t know if there’s much I can ask outside of that.”

“We can try?” She arched her eyebrows.

“Is he always like that?” She asked, cocking her head as she looked at Lois.

“Define ‘like that’,” Lois answered, glancing at her cousin.

“Well, he seemed... I don’t know. A little out of it?”

She drew in a breath. “He’s...had a rough time the past few months,” she admitted. “He and his girlfriend broke up a few weeks ago, and then there’s some stuff related to work that I can’t get into. I’m not sure he’s been sleeping much.” 

“Oh.” Chloe looked at Lois for a moment then nodded. She vaguely remembered something about Oliver Queen’s latest whatever in the paper recently, but she had never really paid attention to the gossip. 

“You should know that most of the stuff that’s written about him is complete and utter crap,” Lois said matter-of-factly. “Granted, he messes up once in awhile and does stupid shit, but overall, he’s a really good guy.” 

“I have to say, he is nothing like what I’d expect,” she admitted, glancing back toward the house.

She smiled at that. “Actually, I think you two could turn out to be good friends, like me and him are,” she said, not wanting to push her cousin beyond that at this point.

Chloe smiled a little at that and shrugged a little. “I guess we will see.” But truth was, she wasn’t in a place where she could say no to new friends.

“And frankly...” Lois cocked her head to the side. “He’s a pretty handy guy to have around.” 

She arched her eyebrows at that. Lex had been pretty handy to have around once upon a time, too. “Like I said, we’ll see how it goes.”

“Sorry. You know how I am.” Lois rolled her eyes. “When I love someone, I want everyone else to love them, too.” She smiled.

“I know,” she said, liking her arm with Lois’ and smiling back at her. “I guess you and Clark are getting pretty good at collecting strays,” she teased to change the subject.

She chuckled softly, shaking her head. “Yeah, I suppose so,” she teased back.

“Okay,” Chloe said as she took a deep breath. “I think I’ll head to bed.”

Lois nodded, guiding her back toward the house. “Yeah, I’m getting kind of sleepy, myself.” 

“It’s the wine,” she said, smiling at Lois as they headed inside. She was a lot more relaxed than usual. But she was also emotionally exhausted from being social all night.

“Must be,” Lois agreed, following her into the house. “Sweet dreams, Chlo.” 

“You too, Lo,” she echoed, glancing toward the kitchen but when she didn’t see anyone, she decided to head upstairs. Surely Oliver wasn’t going to mind her lack of goodnight.

* * * 

It was two o’clock in the morning when Oliver gave up on sleep. It wasn’t that the bed was unfamiliar--he’d long since gotten used to sleeping in unfamiliar locations, considering how much he traveled for Queen Industries. He just hadn’t been sleeping well. He found himself in the kitchen, rubbing his hands over his face tiredly and pulling open the fridge. He grabbed a bottle of juice, then moved to get a glass from the cupboard when he heard light footfall behind him. “Guess I’m not the only insomniac in the house.” His voice was light, and he turned, expecting to see Lois or Clark. The sight of Chloe caught him off guard and he smiled faintly.

She was just as caught off guard as he was, her eyes wide when she saw him but she managed to calm herself with a deep breath. “I guess not.”

He hesitated a second. “Do you want some juice?” The room was mostly dark, but he could see her from the light shining outside toward the barn.

Chloe shook her head and rubbed a hand over her face. “Just need some water, thank you,” she told him as she reached for a glass.

“Yeah, sure,” he said, nodding a little and watching her from the corner of his eye as he poured a glass of juice. He took a drink, then moved back to the fridge, opening it and setting the bottle inside. 

Chloe sighed tiredly as she kept her back to him while she poured herself some water from the bottle that was over the sink. “Do you need anything?” She offered as she turned toward him again.

Oliver glanced at her, shaking his head. “I’m okay,” he said quietly. 

“Is... the room not comfortable?” She asked even though she hesitated.

“No, it’s fine,” he assured her with a small smile. “I’m just not as sleepy as I thought I was, I suppose.” He hesitated, too. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah.” She nodded a little, straightening. “Kind of the same, I guess.”

Oliver watched her for a moment. “What do you usually do when you can’t sleep?” 

“Work,” she admitted, smiling a little. “But I’m as far ahead as I can be at the moment. You?”

Usually he did the same, but considering she didn’t exactly know the truth about his work, he smiled faintly. “Drink juice and take a walk,” he told her.

“Oh, does it help?” She asked, cocking her head a little.

“Sometimes.” He chewed the inside of his cheek, glancing toward the door. “I don’t suppose you’d want to take a walk with me?” 

Chloe looked at him for a moment then took a deep breath. “I guess I could give it a try?”

“You don’t have to,” he assured her. “I know we don’t know each other very well, and I don’t wanna make you uncomfortable.” 

“No, I don’t mind,” she told him. “I guess I’d just not think of going for a walk, but, it could help.”

“All right.” He offered her a small smile. “I’ll go grab our jackets,” he said, heading toward the living room.

Chloe sipped on her water then left the glass on the counter before following him over to the living room. 

Oliver slid his coat on, then held hers out wordlessly, watching her in the darkness.

She arched her eyebrows at that and hesitated before sliding her arms into the coat then turning to face him. “Thanks,” she muttered. After living with Jimmy for over two years, she had no idea how to react to someone being a gentleman.

“You’re welcome,” he said softly, then turned and opened the door, holding it for her. 

Chloe smiled and shook her head as she stepped outside. She had no idea if he was actually making an effort or if he was usually like this but he had manners to rival Clark’s.

He smiled a bit when she did, following her outside and closing the door behind them quietly. Tucking his hands into his coat pockets, he drew in a deep breath of the cool night air. “Been awhile since I was in the country,” he admitted.

“Where have you been?” She asked as she slid her hands into her pockets as well.

“Star City, and now Metropolis,” he told her.

“Oh, _that_ country.” She smiled and nodded. “If given a choice I wouldn’t spend anymore time here than I have to,” she admitted.

“It’s hard living with other people,” he guessed. 

“It’s hard living in Smallville,” she corrected him, shaking her head a little.

“Because it’s so far from where you work?” Oliver glanced at her sideways as they walked down the dirt road.

“Partially,” she said quietly. “I kind of grew up here, half of my life anyway, I’m more of a big city person.” That and moving back to Smallville made her feel like she had failed on so many levels. 

“Me too, honestly. And minus the cold weather, I do like Metropolis.” 

“How is the weather in Star City in the winter? Around seventies?” She guessed. They were talking about the weather, great.

“Sixties to seventies,” he told her, shrugging. “You were living in...Kansas City, right? Before you moved back?” 

“Yeah,” she told him, arching her eyebrows and wondering what else Lois had told him. “Further north so it was actually colder than Metropolis, but not by much.”

Oliver nodded. “The one thing I like about being out here, or out in places away from big cities is that you can see the stars.” 

Chloe paused at that and looked up at the completely clear sky, then nodded. “Sunsets are better, too. But it’s hard to find the time for those.”

“Yeah, it is,” he agreed, voice growing softer. 

“I can’t imagine how busy someone like you must be,” she said, glancing over at him.

Oliver pursed his lips. “Work definitely keeps me occupied most of the time.” 

“In my experience, that’s not always a bad thing,” she told him, trying for a smile even as she kept her eyes on his face. She couldn’t help but wonder what exactly he meant by work, considering her talk with Lois earlier.

“No, not always,” he agreed, looking back at her. He was quiet for a moment. “I kind of get the impression from Lois that you work a lot, yourself.” 

“I do like my job,” she said sincerely. It was the only thing that was actually working out at the moment. 

“That definitely helps.” 

“Do you?” She asked curiously.

“Like my job?” When she nodded, he pursed his lips. “Sometimes I love it. Sometimes...” He shook his head. “Sometimes I need a break.” 

“Well, sounds like if you ever need a break in the country, you have a place to stay,” she said, offering him a soft smile.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “It’s good to have friends you can trust.” He looked out across the fields, moving over toward a picnic table at the far edge of the yard and sitting down on it.

Chloe nodded at that. “It is. I didn’t realize you, Clark and Lois were so close,” she admitted. It sounded better than saying she hadn’t know they knew him at all.

“I’m not around as much as I’d like to be,” he confessed. “But I am in Metropolis for the immediate and forseeable future, so I hope to change that.” 

“I’m sure they will like that. Especially Clark, he doesn’t have a lot of close friends,” she said quietly.

“I think he’s pretty happy to have you here.” He glanced at her sideways.

“He’s kind of like a brother to me,” she admitted, nodding. 

Oliver smiled faintly at that. “And you don’t have actual siblings, right?” 

“No,” she said, squinting a little. “I guess Lois must talk about me a lot.”

“More than she talks about her sister,” he admitted, glancing at her sideways. “I sort of feel like I know you. I mean, not _know_ you know you, but...” He shrugged.

“Well, Lois and I grew up together and Lucy has always lived in Europe,” Chloe paused and shook her head. “But I guess you know that.” She figured it was better to focus on Lucy than on the part that he felt like he knew her.

“Yeah,” he told her with a small smile. “I’ve yet to meet the infamous Lucy Lane.” 

“I can’t even remember the last time I saw her myself,” she admitted. “She didn’t even make it to my wedding,” Chloe said without thinking about it.

“Ouch,” he murmured. “I’m sorry.” His voice was soft.

Chloe blinked at that reaction, pausing for a moment before realizing what he meant. Shaking her head, she shrugged a little. “It’s not a big deal.”

Oliver was silent for a moment, glancing at her sideways again. “Because the two of you weren’t close like you and Lois?” 

She paused and nodded a little. That was the easiest answer. “Lucy has always kind of done her own thing.”

He nodded slightly, thinking that over. “You and Lois are a lot alike in some ways,” he told her. “But completely different in others.” 

Chloe couldn’t help but wonder if he was saying that from the stories Lois told, or from the little time they had spent together that evening. “What makes you say that?”

“You’re a lot quieter than she is,” he said with a small smile. “But I don’t know if that’s really how you usually are, or if it’s because you don’t know me.” 

“Well, it’s normally hard to say a lot when Lois is around,” she said, a hint of teasing in her voice. 

Oliver chuckled at that. “That’s very true.” 

“And, I guess I was kind of tired. She didn’t mention you were coming over, so I stayed late in the city apartment hunting,” she admitted. 

He glanced at her, surprised at that. “Oh. I’m sorry. I hope we didn’t keep you up too late.” He paused. “Even with the not being able to sleep at two in the morning part.” 

“Oh, no. Don’t worry about it,” she told him sincerely. “Dinner was nice.”

“It was,” he agreed, meeting her gaze for a moment. 

“So, did you have to come to Metropolis on business?” She asked, cocking her head. 

Oliver nodded. “Yeah, there are some changes going on in the Metropolis branch of QI,” he told her.

“Good changes?” She asked, keeping her eyes on him as she finally sat down in front of him.

“I hope so,” he said with a small smile. “One of my long-time employees retired, so things are being shuffled around.” 

“Oh, I guess that does require some attention.” She folded her hands together on the table and looked at the sky again.

“Yeah, it requires some long hours, but hopefully it’ll pay off in the end.” 

“And it’s a good city,” she said, smiling a little at him.

“It is,” he agreed, smiling back at her.

Chloe nodded and looked at him for a moment. “I’m sorry if I was kind of, staring at you when you got in,” she said quietly. “Lois hadn’t mention _you_ were coming.”

His lips tugged upwards a little more, an involuntary reaction to her admission. “It’s fine,” he assured her.

“Thank you,” she said quietly, smiling a little at him even though she felt self-conscious about it still.

“No problem. I’m sorry she didn’t warn you I was coming for dinner. I knew you were going to be here.” 

“Well, she told me her friend Oliver was coming,” she told him. “She just didn’t specify _who_ you were. And to be honest, I didn’t realize you guys knew each other.”

“I wondered about that,” Oliver admitted.

“I’m sure she didn’t mention because... I’ve had a lot going on in the past few months. I can tell you mean a lot to both of them,” she added.

He smiled faintly. “I know. I’m not upset.” 

“Okay.” She relaxed a little, even though she couldn’t help but wonder how much exactly Lois had told the guy.

He looked up at the sky, falling silent for a moment. Then, “So how did you find out about Clark?” he asked quietly, curious.

“We went to High School together,” she told him. “He had a way of always showing up when I was in danger and saving me, so I kind of suspected for a while. But then-- do you know about meteor infected people?”

“Lois has talked about that a little, but I still don’t really know much,” he told her, arching his eyebrows.

“Well, there was this one girl who could basically teleport from place to place,” Chloe looked down and took a deep breath. “She was public about her power, so she got into a lot of trouble. She was also obsessed with Clark and thought they belonged together.”

Oliver grimaced at that. “And I’m guessing Clark saw things much differently?” 

“Well, they were together for a while, but she wanted him to be exposed too. So she wouldn’t be the only ‘freak’,” she quoted the word with her fingers. “But, you know how Clark feels about being public, so she got angry at him and came to find me, hoping I’d publish a story about it. She tricked him into stopping a car accident and made sure I was there to see it.”

He pursed his lips, listening to her story and nodding slightly. “So you actually got to see his abilities in action.” 

“Yeah. Of course, no story was published and he didn’t even know I had found out until months later, when I was in danger and he knew I’d see him if he helped me, so I told him I already knew,” she explained. 

He nodded, studying her. “It sounded like you two have been pretty good friends for a long time?” 

“We are, we have been since we were eleven,” she told him.

Idly he wondered what it would be like to have grown up with friends from such a young age, but wondering did no good. It wasn’t his life, and it never would be. “That’s nice,” he said softly.

“How did you find out about him?” She asked, wondering if he was going to tell her the truth.

He hesitated a second. “He got into some trouble with Lex Luthor,” he said, voice dropping. “Whom I happened to know. We went to school together. He had Clark immobilized with some meteor rock.” 

“I heard about that,” she admitted, her eyes widening a little, but she didn’t miss the fact that he had called kryptonite ‘meteor rocks’ instead so she couldn’t help but wonder if he knew about the alien heritage as well. “How did you find out about it?”

“That night,” he admitted. “With Lois’s help, we managed to distract Lex, and I tossed the rocks away.” 

“Oh, I’m glad he finally decided to let Lois in on his secret,” she admitted. 

“She was, too,” he said with a small, wry smile.

“Trust me, that much I know,” she said quietly.

“Yeah, I’m sure you do,” Oliver said just as quietly, watching her.

“So, after you helped Lois help Clark,” she went on, looking at him. “Was he, okay with you knowing?” She really needed to figure out more about _how_ he had been there in the first place, but she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable.

“I think it freaked him out at first. Especially considering Lois found out at the same time,” he admitted. 

“Yeah. I mean, Lois suspected something was up, but Clark likes to believe he is incredibly good at hiding his secret,” Chloe said, with a soft smirk.

He couldn’t help but smile at that. “I wouldn’t have guessed it, but I barely knew him at the time.” 

“But now the three of you talk pretty often?” She asked curiously, letting go of the possibility of digging for Oliver’s own secret. He seemed to be pretty respectful about not saying anything about her own issues that she was sure he knew about.

He nodded slightly. Except when he went on a downward spiral and pushed everyone away, he thought. 

“I’m glad,” she told him sincerely.

“Me too,” he said softly. “And I’m glad that you’re here. I know Lois has really missed you, and I’m pretty sure Clark has, too.” 

“I’ve missed them too,” she admitted, smiling a little. 

So had he, so he nodded slightly. “Maybe we can all do dinner again sometime soon.” 

“Yeah, that’d be good,” she agreed. “Maybe we can even do that in Metropolis next time.”

Oliver cocked his head to the side. “Yeah. I could have it at my place,” he suggested.

“Sure,” she said with a nod. “And, after that, maybe I’ll have my place already.”

He nodded, too. “Speaking of...if you need some help finding a place, I could have someone put together a listing for you,” he offered.

“I have a couple appointments for this week and next, but if I still don’t find anything, I might take you up on that,” she said sincerely. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, of course. Any friend of Lois and Clark’s is a friend of mine,” he said with a small smile.

“Goes both ways,” she told him, smiling a little. Especially if he was a vigilante of some sort who had saved Clark’s life.

His smile widened and he held his hand out. “Friends, then,” he said, eyes bright.

Chloe couldn’t help but be surprised at how bright his expression got all of the sudden. Although, if she thought about it, she guessed someone like him didn’t come by friends, real friends easily. So she took his hand and shook it, smiling softly at him. “Friends.”


	3. Chapter 3

Oliver Queen was a light sleeper. He didn’t use to be, but since his time on the island he’d been stranded on, he’d had to be. His life sort of depended on it. So when he heard the sound of an engine that wouldn’t turn over somewhere in the distance--that didn’t sound like a _lot_ of distance, he made his way down the stairs at the Kent house. Other than the sound outside, everything was silent. 

He rubbed a hand over his face, looking out the front door and frowning a bit when he saw Chloe seated in the driver’s seat of the red VW bug. He could tell she was frustrated. Car trouble was definitely annoying. He picked up his coat, shrugging into it and heading outside, descending the porch stairs and making his way over to her. He tapped lightly on her window.

Chloe jumped and held her breath when she heard the tap, then reached and tried to open the window, but since the car wouldn’t start, her attempt was useless, so she opened the door instead.

He offered her a small, sympathetic smile. “Sounds like there’s something wrong with the engine,” he told her.

“Yeah.” She sighed, shaking her head. “Apparently between the move back from Kansas City and the commute, it decided it had enough,” she said, irritated. 

He pursed his lips. “I need to head back to Metropolis for a meeting. You’re welcome to ride with me.” 

Chloe looked up at him for a moment. “Are you leaving soon?”

“Yeah. I’m just gonna go change.” He hitched his thumb over his shoulder.

“Thank you,” she said with a sigh and nodded.

Oliver gave her a small smile. “Be right back.” He turned and headed back into the house.

Chloe closed the door and remained in her car as she waited, sipping on her coffee. At least it was warmer than being outside. 

A few moments later, he re-emerged from the house, closing the front door behind him quietly, dressed in the suit he’d been wearing the previous night. The tie was loose around his neck, and he’d obviously run a comb through his hair. His car keys were in his hand and he lifted it in a wave, motioning her toward his SUV.

She met him by his car, waiting just a second for him to unlock it before making her way up and into his SUV. She had no idea about car models or years but considering it was in pristine condition and smelled like new, she wouldn’t be surprised if he had never used the car before his trip in the previous night. “Thank you.”

“Not a problem,” he assured her, sliding his seatbelt on and waiting for her to do the same. Once she had, he pulled out the center console. “You can set your drink down if you want.” He started the vehicle.

“Thanks,” she said as she placed her travel mug on the cup holder then tugged on her seatbelt. “Did I wake you? With the car?”

“No, I was already awake. Your car just motivated me to get out of bed,” he told her, even though it wasn’t true. He didn’t want her to worry about waking him. 

She nodded a little at that and took a deep breath. “I knew it was just a matter of time, I was hoping it’d last longer, though.”

“How long have you had it?” 

Chloe paused, thinking about it for a moment. “Since 2002.” 

He considered that. “It’s not that old. Maybe it can be fixed?” 

“Hopefully,” she agreed. Because she sure as hell couldn’t afford a new car right now, of course she wasn’t about to tell the billionaire that. “I’ll give the local mechanic a call and ask him to come by during the day.”

“You know him?” he asked, then paused. “Right, you used to live here.” He shook his head.

“Yeah. He’s had a shop here for thirty years or something, used to be his dad’s, one of those family businesses,” she explained, reaching for her phone. She also had to call and cancel her appointment with the apartment people, but that’d have to wait.

He nodded slightly, smiling just a bit, considering he was running his family’s business. “Yeah.” 

Chloe nodded distractedly as she set a reminder on her phone to call him later in the day. At least she could take a ride home with Clark later that night.

Oliver glanced at her sideways. “I assume you have work at the Planet this morning?” 

She blinked and focused on him after a moment. “I was going to go see some apartments before work, but I think I’ll just skip that.”

“Oh.” He paused, looking out the windshield. “What time do you have to work?” 

“I don’t really have a time, my partner is usually in between nine or ten, so I try to come around the same time,” she explained.

Oliver nodded. “You could use one of my cars,” he suggested. 

“Oh, Oliver.” She shook her head and sat up. “That’s not necessary. Thank you, but it’s not that big a deal.”

“It’s not to me either,” he assured her. “I have eight here.” He winced a little as he realized how _that_ sounded.

Chloe paused at that and arched her eyebrows. Sounded like she must’ve been right about assuming this car was brand new. “Why do you have so many here?” She asked, but she was sincerely curious. 

“Makes it easier to avoid the press.” A wry grin touched his mouth. “And yes, I do see the irony in that statement at the moment.” 

She actually smiled at that and shook her head. “Don’t worry, I’m not about to go stalking you to find out who your latest girlfriend is. Now if there is a company scandall, I might be interested in reporting that.”

He smirked, glancing at her sideways. “Very reassuring,” he teased.

“But, as a friend of the family, I guess stalking and spying on you is off limits,” she added. 

“Appreciated,” he said lightly, focusing on the road ahead. “But seriously, you’re welcome to one of the vehicles if you want. You can use it til yours is fixed.” 

“Thank you,” she said sincerely. “I’ll see how long it will be, I mean I can ride with Clark a couple of days.”

“Sure. If you change your mind, it’s fine, though. Let me give you my number in case you need it.” He glanced at her sideways.

“Okay,” she said, not sure why she felt a little nervous all of the sudden. Regardless, she reached for her phone and typed in his name. “Go ahead.”

He dictated his cell number for her, chewing the inside of his cheek for a moment. Then he glanced at her again. “You can call me anytime. About the only time I don’t answer is if I’m in a meeting and can’t.” 

“Okay,” she agreed then pointed at his phone. “Do you mind if I add mine to your phone too? Just in case?” She doubted she’d ever get a call from him but she felt like she had to offer.

“Yeah, of course,” he said, fishing it out of his pocket and handing it out to her.

“Thank you,” she said as she took the phone and programmed her number in it. 

He smiled, nodding. “Maybe we could get together for dinner one night after work,” he suggested.

Chloe paused at that and arched her eyebrows. “Sure,” she said, suddenly not sure if he meant the two of them or Clark and Lois, too. “Give me a call.”

“I will,” he told her, nodding.

“Okay,” she agreed quietly, smiling at him. The only thing that made sense was that he had about as many friends as she did.

The drive to Metropolis passed with alternating moments of comfortable silence and companionable conversation. He had to admit, it was the most enjoyable three hours of travel he’d had in a long, long time. He was actually kind of sad when they finally reached the city. “Sure you don’t wanna borrow one of my cars?” he offered once more.

“I’m sure, at least for now,” she said, feeling a lot more relaxed as she pulled the strap of her purse over her head and reached for her now empty travel mug. “But thank you again, for the ride and for offering.”

He offered her a smile. “Sure thing,” he said, watching her. “I’ll talk to you soon, I’m sure.” 

“Definitely,” she agreed, smiling at him.

“Have a good day, Chloe,” he told her.

“You too, Oliver. See you soon,” she said then reached for the door and stepped out of the car. 

* * * 

Since she got there so early, Chloe had been looking for minor articles to work on. Her position as a full reporter was still new to her, well at the Planet, anyway so she knew it wouldn’t hurt to impress the new editor. Not that she thought she had anything to worry about when he had personally promoted her to work with his nephew, but still. She was ahead on her assignments so she might as well do something. 

Between her lack of sleep and her four cups of coffee, added with the stress of her car breaking down, she hadn’t even noticed anyone approaching her desk until a cup of fresh coffee was set in front of her. She looked up and smiled at her cousin. “Exactly what I wanted.” 

Lois grinned. “Of course. I know you.” She plopped down in the chair in front of Chloe’s desk. “So you took off super early this morning. Ollie too.”

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed, reaching for the coffee. “He actually gave me a ride. My car wouldn’t start.”

“Figured when I saw it sitting there,” she said, arching her eyebrows. “How was the drive in?” 

“It was fine,” she told Lois, shaking her head. “But it does mean I need to get my car fixed.”

She nodded slightly, taking a sip of her own coffee. “We can carpool if we need to.” 

“I know,” she said then hesitated as she looked up to her cousin. “Oliver offered to let me borrow one of his cars.”

Lois smiled at that, not seeming surprised. “You should. He wouldn’t have offered if he hadn’t meant it.” 

“I’m not really comfortable with that, I would be terrified of something happening to it. Besides, I barely know the guy.”

She shrugged. “I wrecked the first car of his I borrowed. He didn’t even bat an eyelash.” 

Her eyes widened at that and she stared at her cousin. 

“It was a porsche.” 

“Lois,” Chloe said carefully, cocking her head and lowering her voice. “Does he... have feelings for you?”

She laughed at the expression on Chloe’s face. “Only the friendly kind. He’s a billionaire, Chloe. Like, the richest guy on the planet.” 

“Still, Lois. He obviously cares about you a lot. And he’s asked you out before. On top of that, he was being ridiculously nice to me.”

“He’s a genuinely nice guy, Chloe. Like I said, you can’t believe everything you’ve read about him. I know how the tabloids paint him. But he has to act a certain way or...” Her voice trailed off and she pursed her lips, frustrated.

“Or?” Chloe echoed, frowning.

She sighed heavily, propping her head up on one hand. “One of those things I can’t divulge.” She hated keeping secrets from Chloe.

“Right.” She nodded a little. “It’s okay.”

Lois took a drink of her coffee. “Anyway. Just trust me on this one?” 

“Of course,” she agreed quietly then paused. “He doesn’t have many friends, does he?” She asked curiously.

She cocked her head to the side. “Not a lot of _real_ ones, no,” she agreed.

“That’s the impression I got,” Chloe admitted. She almost went on to mention her talk with Oliver the previous night when neither of them could sleep, but she thought better of it. She didn’t want to worry her cousin. “And, how much have you told him about me?”

Lois paused at that, narrowing her eyes a little. “Why? What did he say?” 

“Nothing specific, but most things I mentioned, he seemed to know about. And I’m guessing that includes Jimmy because he stirred off the topic completely,” she said, squinting at her cousin.

Good boy, Lois thought, leaning back in her chair. “I do talk about you a lot,” she admitted, shrugging.

Chloe sighed a little and nodded. “I noticed. I just wanted to know what he knows, which is apparently a lot.” 

Lois sighed, too. “He may have had to listen to me to vent my frustrations a few times.” 

She arched her eyebrows at that and shrugged a little then nodded. “I guess that makes sense.”

“Not that I vented frustration about _you._ ” She arched her eyebrows, too. “Just...Jimmy, you know?” 

“I know, Lo,” she said sincerely. “I vented at you, so you had to do something with it.” She smiled and sipped on her coffee. 

“And Clark can only listen to so much cursing.” She smirked.

“You’d think he’d be used to it by now,” she said, smirking back.

Lois grinned. “You’d think.” 

Chloe looked over Lois’ shoulder when she saw her partner, Richard White coming in and taking his seat as he greeted the two of them. “Morning,” she answered, smiling at him.

“And that’s my cue to get to work,” Lois said, rising to her feet. “Lunch later?” 

“Yeah,” Chloe agreed. “And I’ll probably just drive back with you guys tonight so, don’t leave without me.”

“We won’t,” she assured her cousin.

“Thanks, Lo,” she called before turning her attention back to her computer.

“No problem, Cuz,” Lois called back, smiling to herself as she headed back to her own desk. Not bad for a first meeting. Not bad at all.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a little after seven when her phone started to ring, she kept her eyes on her monitor as she re-read the article she had just finished. There were plenty of people at the Planet still, but it was so dark out already, it felt like it was a lot later. “Sullivan,” she answered as she looked out the window since there was no point reading if she wasn’t completely focused on it. 

“Hi, Sullivan. This is Queen.” Oliver’s voice was light and teasing.

Chloe paused and arched her eyebrows. “Oliver, hi. Sorry, work mode,” she said as she leaned back against her chair.

“It’s fine,” he told her, amused. “How’s it going?” 

“Going okay, how are you?” She asked. She hadn’t spoken with him since he had given her a ride to the city a couple days ago, when her car broke down.

“I’m good. I was wondering if you’d had dinner yet?” 

“Oh,” she hesitated, frowning a little. She hadn’t expected him to _actually_ follow through with this. But then, Lois had told her he didn’t have many friends. “No, not yet. I’m still at work.”

“Oh. I don’t suppose you’re leaving soon?” His voice was hopeful.

“Probably in about half an hour?” She sat up a little. “Lois and Clark have already left, though.”

“That’s okay. I don’t mind it just being the two of us,” he assured her. “I mean, if you’re interested in getting a bite to eat with me.” 

Chloe was silent for a moment then shrugged a little. She needed friends, too. “Sure, do you have a place in mind?”

“Not really,” he admitted. “I’m up for anything, so if something sounds good, I’m all ears.” 

“I can think about it. Are you at home?” She asked, he had mentioned owning the Clocktower during their drive the other morning.

“No, I’m still at the office,” he told her.

“Oh, we’re pretty close, then. We can just meet at...” She paused and looked at the clock on her computer. “7:30?”

“Sounds good. Want me to come to you?” he offered.

“Sure,” she said, arching her eyebrows. “Let me know when you’re close and I can come downstairs, then?”

“Sounds good.” 

“Okay,” she agreed, sitting up. “I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon,” Oliver echoed, hanging up the phone a moment later.

Chloe hung up too and looked down at her phone for a moment before setting it down and taking a deep breath so she could focus on her article once more. 

* * * 

Oliver arrived at the Daily Planet twenty minutes later, and after calling Chloe on his cell phone once more, he stood outside the door to wait for her, hands tucked into his coat pockets. It had been a long day, and not in the good way. He’d run into trouble trying to find a replacement for Joseph, the man who had retired. Several people of course, were applying for the position but so far none of them was really qualified to take over. Which meant just that part of work was going to go much slower than he’d anticipated. 

She made her way downstairs a moment later, smiling at him when she saw he was already there. “Hey,” she greeted as she buttoned up her coat. “Hope you didn’t wait long, elevators can be kind of slow.”

He turned, smiling back at her easily. “Not at all,” he assured her. 

“Do you have any kind of food you prefer? Or any food you absolutely don’t eat?” She asked as she walked up to him.

“As long as we stay away from all things involving peanuts, I’m good,” he told her, arching his eyebrows. “What about you?” 

“I’ll try anything once. But, how do you feel about Thai? I haven’t had any in a while.” Jimmy hated Thai, so she rarely ever had it back in Kansas City and since she had moved back, she hadn’t really gone out to eat much in the city other than quick lunches.

At that, he grinned. “One of my favorite foods,” he told her. “Do you know a good place around here?” 

She brightened at that and nodded, smiling up at him. “Yeah, I don’t know how authentic it is, but it’s my favorite thai place. It’s just a couple blocks over, so we can walk.”

Oliver nodded. “Lead the way,” he told her. When they started walking, he glanced at her sideways. “Thanks for meeting me.” 

“Thanks for inviting me,” she told him as she slid her hands in her pockets. “How’s work?”

He smiled at that, nodding. “It’s...not progressing the way I’d like it to, but I’ll deal,” he admitted. “What about you?” 

“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said with a frown. “Things are okay at the Planet, nothing major going on but always busy.”

“Busy is good, though. Makes the day go by faster.” 

“It does,” she agreed. “I only knew it was past six when you called because Clark and Lois had come by to tell me they were leaving.”

“I take it you got your car all fixed?” Oliver asked.

“I did.” She smiled. “My mechanic said it might not last long, but he assured me I should be good for a while longer.

He wondered how long ‘not long’ might be, but he didn’t voice his concerns. “That’s good. Any luck finding a place here in the city?” 

“Not yet,” she admitted, shrugging a little. “I figured I’ll wait a while longer. Classes just started a couple months ago, a lot of people get back to the city around this time, so I might have more luck in a month or so.” That and she had spent quite a bit on her car, on top of all the fees she was still paying because of the divorce, she just reached the conclusion she couldn’t afford the kind of apartment she wanted right now.

Oliver nodded at that. “Yeah, that makes sense,” he said, considering what she’d said. 

“Besides, Lois and Clark asked me to stay longer, at least through the holidays,” she told him, smiling. “I don’t know if I can wait that long.”

“It’s a long drive,” he agreed, opening the door to the restaurant once they arrived in front of it. “I don’t know if I could do it every day, twice a day and work eight hours to top it off.” 

“I get rides from Clark sometimes,” she admitted. “But yeah, it’s a lot of driving,” she said as she followed the hostess to a table.

“I guess that would help some, though,” he agreed, sitting down on one side of the table.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “But I don’t wanna abuse it.” Besides, she wanted to do things on her own for a while.

“Fair enough.” He offered her a small smile, leaning back in his chair.

“Do you usually have dinner this late?” She asked. 

“Yeah, a lot of times. I tend to get caught up in work and forget what time it is.” He shrugged.

“I know the feeling,” she said with a smile. “What do you usually do on your weekends? Or... do you have weekends?”

“Sometimes I do.” He smiled a bit more. “But not always. Mostly I just try and catch my breath. Watch movies or read or something. Sometimes I’m obligated to go to fundraisers and events, though.” 

“Ah, those. Yeah I had to do a couple of events when I was doing correspondent work. I doubt I’ll be doing many now that I’m back, though,” she said then shrugged a little. “They could be pretty tedious.” 

“Yes, they definitely can be,” he agreed, arching his eyebrows. “What about you, though? What do you like to do when you’re not working?” 

“I haven’t had a lot of time since I moved back,” she admitted. “I’ll usually read or watch movies if there’s anything that sounds interesting. Smallville is having the fall festival soon, I don’t know if it’s this weekend or the one after that. It’s always good for food.”

“What does the festival entail?” he asked curiously, cocking his head to the side. “I mean other than the food.” 

“A few rides and game booths, a couple of terrible local bands and eating contests. You know, very typical small town festival,” she told him.

He smiled at that involuntarily. “Sounds like a nice break from the day-to-day.” 

“It is,” she admitted, smiling at him. “You should come with us. Clark loves it so I won’t be surprised if he spends both Saturday and Sunday there.”

Oliver leaned forward. “You know, I think I might just take you up on that. I’ve never been to a small town festival before.” 

“Really?” Chloe said, surprised. “Then you definitely have to.”

He smiled. “I’m assuming there’s going to be a ferris wheel?” 

“There usually is,” she told him, nodding slightly as she sipped on her water.

“Excellent.” He picked up his menu and opened it. “So what’s your favorite here?” 

“I’ve tried a few different things,” she admitted. “But I usually have the chicken pad thai. Since it’s been a while, that’s what I’m getting.”

“That sounds good,” he said, nodding. “I think I’m going to go with Khao mu krop, myself.” 

“Oh, sounds nice,” she said after she read the item from the menu. 

A waitress approached, and they ordered their meals, and for the first time in a long time, Oliver suspected he was in a restaurant where the staff didn’t know who he was. Which meant he was going to be coming here more often. There was a lot to be said about eating a meal in peace.

Chloe cocked her head and smiled a little at the look on his face. “Are you okay?” She asked once the woman was gone.

“Yeah, I’m good. I was just thinking it was nice to be able to go out to dinner without a lot of publicity,” he confessed.

“Oh, right,” she said, looking around then focusing on him again. “Yeah, they keep to themselves here and I think all of the staff is just the family, so...”

“That’s good to know. I’ll definitely keep it in mind.” He smiled a little.

“I can’t guarantee they will all be as peaceful as this one, but I know quite a few of the smaller restaurants in the area, I could make you a list,” she suggested. 

Oliver arched his eyebrows. “Yeah? That’d be really great, Chloe. Thank you.” His voice was sincere.

“Not a problem,” she said just as sincerely. 

“Maybe we could make this a weekly thing,” he suggested. “You could show me all the little restaurants where you like to eat.” 

Chloe paused at that and arched her eyebrows as she considered that for a moment. “We could try,” she told him, smiling softly. “I mean, both our jobs can be kind of unpredictable.” Especially if he had a second job like she suspected he did.

He nodded at that, studying her. “True,” he agreed. “But yeah, we should try. I mean, if you’re interested.” 

“Yeah, it sounds nice, and it will be a good way for me to let Lois and Clark have some alone time at home.” It was definitely better than staying at work late even though she didn’t actually have any work left to do.

Oliver’s expression brightened. “Great.”


	5. Chapter 5

Oliver made his way down the darkened corridor, boots silent on the tile floor as he moved. He was fairly certain he was at the right facility, if the medicinal smell was anything to go by. Lex was using this as a lab for his experiments. Which meant Oliver needed to find out what exactly he was doing, why, and put a stop to it. What he hadn’t counted on was the second round of alarms. The ones he’d just tripped. Shit.

As the alarm sounded, in the opposite side of the building, Chloe stilled too. Clark was supposed to be there with her, he had brought her over to help look into some files that he thought might help them find out more about Lex’s next round of experiments along with finding out if Lex had anything on Clark himself. But there had been an emergency and Clark had left to help the people he’d heard asking for help. She just hoped he was already on his way back. “Clark!” She called, but didn’t yell even as she packed up the equipment and willed the files to copy to her flash drive faster. 

Apparently Oliver was going to just have to make this a fast information-gathering session. He darted into a room, freezing when he spotted a familiar blonde across the room. What the hell was Chloe doing here?

She was about to take off running when she saw movement out of the corner of her eye, but when she turned to look at who it was, she stilled again. She had never seen him, had never seen pictures of him, but drawings of what he was believed to look like. “Green Arrow?” She breathed, eyes wide.

“You need to get out of here,” he urged her, heading out the door once more.

Chloe glanced over at the computer, her heart racing. “It’s almost done,” she told him, knowing that he had stolen things often, she didn’t think he’d try to stop her from stealing information from the Luthors.

“Guards are coming,” he warned, moving down the hallway, body tense. 

“I have back up coming,” she told him as he walked away, turning back to the computer even as she reached for her phone to call Clark.

He was pretty sure he knew who that back-up was, and at that moment, he was very glad that Clark would be interrupting his job.

When Clark just answered with “I’m on my way,” Chloe hung up the phone and went back to the computer, holding her breath as she watched the progress bar on the screen. As soon as it turned green, she pulled the flash drive out, stuffed it in her bag and started back the way they had come from, hoping it was fast enough.

Oliver punched one of the guards in the face, satisfied when the man hit the ground. He moved past him and onto the next guard coming at him. 

Chloe wasn’t far behind, rushing down the hallway, she looked over her shoulder but it looked like the guards were busy following the Green Arrow, so all she had to do was stay behind. She could hear them shouting amongst themselves and it sounded like a fight was breaking. Her heart was already beating fast but it skipped a beat completely when she heard a gunshot.

At that moment, Clark appeared in front of her, picking her up. Before she had a chance to say anything, he had her out of there and at the farmhouse. “You okay?” he asked anxiously.

She gasped and stared at him, nodding. “Go back, Green Arrow was there, I heard a gunshot,” she said urgently.

Clark’s eyes widened and then he vanished. Seconds later, he returned, carrying the leather-clad man and setting him down on the ground. 

At which point, Oliver promptly threw up everything he’d eaten that day.

Chloe’s eyes widened even more as she watched the man, most of all, she saw the blood dripping down his arm. “He’s hurt,” she said to Clark, hesitating as she stepped closer.

“I’ll go get some bandages,” Clark said, heading into the house. 

Dimly, Oliver registered the sound of her voice and after he’d recovered from heaving, he pressed the back of his hand to his mouth. “Hate when he does that,” he grumbled.

She frowned at his words and lifted a hand to his uninjured arm. “You need to sit down,” she said, feeling guilty that he had been hurt, Even though, while he was bleeding, the blood wasn’t gushing out and it wasn’t dark.

He turned his head to look at her, his hood and glasses still disguising his face from her view. “Probably,” he agreed.

“Here.” She guided him toward the small bench just outside the living room window, but she was too worried about his arm to pay attention to his face. “It looks like the bullet just grazed your arm,” she said, trying to be comforting. 

He was silent for a moment, watching her as she examined his injury. Without warning, he reached up, yanking his hood back and off.

Chloe stepped back at the sudden movement, her eyes widening yet again when she noticed him pushing his hood back. “What are you--” she paused, staring at him for a full moment. “Oliver?”

He pulled his night vision glasses off and arched his eyebrows, offering her a small, somewhat amused smile. “Hey.” 

“Oh,” she breathed, pursing her lips together. It made sense, she had been suspicious that he was a vigilante already and then for Clark to just bring someone over to his house like that. “Are you okay?”

Oliver nodded slightly, keeping his eyes on her to try and measure her reaction. “Yeah. Like you said, the bullet just grazed me,” he told her quietly. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah,” she whispered, finally dropping the bag she’d been carrying to the floor. “I didn’t realize you were gonna be there, too.”

“Ditto,” he admitted, glancing down at the bag and then back up at her.

“You didn’t?” She asked, surprised as she hesitated then sat down next to him. It had been a long time since she had broken into anything like this, Lois had talked her into going tonight and she had forgotten just how overwhelming it could be.

Oliver shook his head a little. “I haven’t talked to Lois or Clark for a couple days.” 

“Do you usually go on missions like that on your own?” She asked with a frown.

He cocked his head to the side. “Usually? I don’t know about that. Sometimes.” 

“No offense, but that doesn’t seem very smart. I mean, there must have been about ten guards in there,” she said as she frowned more.

“According to my intel, there weren’t any guards at the facility at all,” he told her.

“And who is doing your intel?” She arched an eyebrow, hoping it wasn’t Lois.

He hesitated a second. “Lois,” he told her.

Chloe winced and nodded, taking a deep breath. “I’ll try to teach her how to hack.” Again. But truth was, as great as Lois was at research, she never liked or had the patience for technology as much as she needed for hacking.

“So that’s what you were doing? Hacking into Lex’s files?” 

“Copying them,” she admitted with a shrug. “That night you helped Clark, he thinks Lex might have something on him, he wants to make sure.”

He frowned at that, wondering why Clark hadn’t said anything to him about it. “Maybe we should take a look at what you’ve got,” he said, nodding toward her bag.

“Maybe I should take a look at what I’ve got and you should find Clark to get that arm cleaned up. I’m sure he’s explaining Lois everything.”

His mouth twitched ever-so-slightly. He could count on one hand the amount of people who’d given him some form of the word no as an answer to something in the recent past. He rose to his feet, arching his eyebrows. “Come on.” 

She reached for her bag then stood up too. “Is it just your arm?” She asked.

“Yeah. I’m all right.” He looked down at his arm, which was stained with blood, but not a lot of it. 

“At least it doesn’t look like you’re bleeding anymore,” she told him, pausing as the door opened. 

“Sorry,” Clark said, looking between them and pausing when he noticed Oliver’s face wasn’t hidden anymore. “I set everything up in the downstairs bathroom,” he told the other man.

Oliver pursed his lips, nodding. “All right. I’ll be out soon,” he assured them, patting Clark’s arm and heading past him toward the bathroom.

“You’re letting him do it by himself?” Chloe asked with a frown.

Clark frowned back. “Yeah? I mean, he’s stitched himself up before,” he said uncomfortably.

“Clark,” she sighed, shaking her head. “Boot up my laptop, the flash drive is in here,” she said, pointing at the outer pocket of the bag as she held it out to him. “Have Lois start on it.”

“Okay.” His frown deepened and he watched her head away.

Chloe paused outside the bathroom before knocking, then she shrugged her jacket off and waited.

A second later, the door opened and she and Oliver were face to face. His vest was now discarded on the sink, arms and chest bare. “Hey.” 

“I thought Clark was helping you,” she told him, glancing at his incredible bare chest before straightening a little. “I don’t mind helping if you need it.”

He considered that for a moment, then opened the door wider, stepping aside to let her in.

Chloe managed to smile at him as she stepped inside. “Thanks,” she said, quickly focusing on his arm. “Have you disinfected it?”

Oliver nodded. “Yeah, I just need to wrap it up. That’s the harder part.” He smiled faintly, moving over to lean against the sink as he picked up the ace bandage and held it out to her. 

Chloe reached out for it and nodded. “You don’t think it needs stitches?” She asked, hoping not because she had no clue how to do that.

“No, it’s not that deep,” he told her.

“Okay.” She relaxed. “Can you lift your arm?”

Oliver lifted his arm as requested, holding still as she began to wind the bandage around it, watching her closely and holding his breath.

She looked at him for a moment then stepped closer and started to carefully wrap the bandage around the cut. “Thank you,” she said quietly, as she glanced at him. “For telling me.”

He paused, pursing his lips for a moment. “I was going to tell you sooner but I’d...well, I guess I was curious to know what your opinion was on Green Arrow before I did, but...there was never really a great opportunity to bring it up.” 

“Well, I kind of suspected you did something like this,” she admitted. “I mean, Lois said there were things she couldn’t tell me about you, and then you said you helped Clark. I just didn’t realize you were _him_.”

“And now that you know?” His voice grew quieter.

“Now... it makes sense. I mean, you’re human, aren’t you?” She asked. “No, special powers or anything?”

“Completely powerless,” he told her.

“I figured from everything I’ve heard that Green Arrow would be powerless. I guess it just makes sense. And it’d have to be someone with money, much like Batman, to be able to afford all the gadgets and costume pieces something like this would require. Plus, being able to pay off people who might find out, or who might help you when you get hurt,” she told him, as she turned her attention back to his arm. “Of course that’s assuming you don’t have anyone who’d help you without needing to be paid off.”

“Lois and Clark, and...there is another person, but...” He hesitated. “His identity isn’t my place to reveal.” 

“Got it,” she said, nodding at him. “That’s good though, that you have people who can help you if you need. For the longest time, Clark didn’t and then when I moved and Lois still didn’t know...” And all the fights she got into with Jimmy when he asked her where she’d been and she had to make up lame excuses.

He watched her closely. “I’m sure it was difficult,” he agreed quietly.

“It wasn’t easy.” She finished wrapping the bandage around his wound then used tape to keep it in place. “Anyone with this kind of life needs to have at least one person they can go to if they need to.”

“And you have Lois and Clark, too,” he said, keeping his eyes on her.

“Yeah,” she agreed quietly. “Although, I don’t do what you do,” she said as she leaned against the sink. “You’re done.”

Oliver considered that for a moment, glancing down at his arm and then at her again. “Thanks,” he said sincerely. “And you kinda do what I do. At least part of it. I mean, you had broke into Lex’s lab to steal his files...” 

“No problem,” she said then shrugged. “But not the fighting and rescuing people. I was just there because we couldn’t access those files from an external network and I knew if I gave Clark the bug for him to drop in the computer, he wouldn’t know how to activate it, so, it was easier that way.” 

He nodded slightly. “Makes sense.” 

“But, I haven’t really been doing anything like this,” she told him, looking down. “Not since Lois started helping him.”

Oliver pursed his lips. “Well, no offense to Lois, but she needs some serious lessons with intel.” 

“She’s really good with research,” Chloe said, smiling at him. “But, since I’m around, I don’t mind helping when she needs me.”

“Don’t mind, or you kind of like it?” he questioned, searching her eyes.

Chloe paused at the question, straightening. “Well, it’d take some getting used to, doing this again...” she admitted then shook her head. “But, I think it’s good for Lois and Clark to do this together, I mean, I think it makes her feel included in this part of his life and it makes him feel like she’s okay with all of who he is. I don’t wanna get in the way of that.”

“I didn’t necessarily mean for Clark,” he admitted.

Arching her eyebrows, she cocked her head. “Then what did you mean?”

“For me,” Oliver told her, pursing his lips.

She knew that was what he meant, of course. But considering they had only known each other for a few days, she didn’t want to assume. “I could give you a hand when you need one?”

At that, he smiled, extending his hand toward her. “That’d be nice,” he agreed.

Chloe looked at his hand for a moment and reached toward it then paused, pulling her hand back. “On a trial basis?”

“If you don’t want to do it after we give it a shot, I won’t hold you to it,” he assured her. “No binding contracts or deals for your soul.” Now his voice held a hint of teasing.

“Ah, that’s better than my last deal,” she teased back, smiling then reaching for his hand and shaking it with a firm grip. “Deal,” she said, trying to subdue her excitement. 

He grinned, his eyes brightening as he shook her hand, as well, not nearly as successful at containing his enthusiasm as she was. “Deal.”


	6. Chapter 6

Because of his injury, Lois had insisted he spent the night at farm once again, especially since the festival was this weekend and he was going to come in for that anyways. So Clark had ran back to grab him some clothes and this morning, after breakfast, all four of them made their way to the fall festival. Chloe was on her second cup of coffee but she barely needed it. She was wide awake, just thinking of all the possibilities of her work with Oliver could bring. 

“I’ll go deliver the produce first,” Clark said as he parked the truck. 

“Ah, the fun begins,” Chloe teased, smiling at him.

“What is the product?” Oliver asked, leaning closer to Chloe and arching his eyebrows.

“Produce,” Clark told him, shaking his head at Chloe. “Fruits and vegetable from the farm that some of the vendors ordered to make the dishes for their booths.”

“Oh.” He nodded, arching his eyebrows as Clark climbed out of the truck. He watched Lois climb out behind him, each of them grabbing a box from the back. “Guess I should probably help.” He reached for his door handle.

“Not with that arm, you shouldn’t,” Lois said, arching her eyebrows at him. “I’ll help, you go... get ice cream or something harmless.”

“My arm’s fine, Lois,” he said seriously, shaking his head.

“We got it,” she said seriously right back at him. “Go, both of you.” 

“I wouldn’t argue,” Clark said, amused. 

Oliver smirked, shrugging and looking at Chloe. “Okay then.” He offered her his hand to help her out of the truck.

“Thanks,” Chloe said to Oliver as she got down then shook her head at her cousin. “I’m not injured, you know?”

“Shoo,” Lois responded, grinning.

Shaking her head, Chloe shrugged and looked over at Oliver. “Our services are not needed.” 

“I’m getting that,” he said, nodding.

Chloe gave her cousin a look then shrugged. “Well, they will probably go make out somewhere,” she said as she started toward the festival.

“That actually wouldn’t surprise me,” he said with a wry smile. 

“Good for them,” Chloe said sincerely then shrugged. 

He glanced at her sideways, nodding. “So what are we supposed to do first at one of these?” he asked uncertainly.

“Well, usually we eat, but since it’s a little early for that, we can go look at the rides,” she suggested. “Or the vendors, if you want.”

“Rides are good,” he told her, smiling. He glanced around, locating the ferris wheel easily. It had been a long time since he’d been on any amusement park rides.

“Alright, any preferences?” She asked, smiling back at him.

“Ferris wheel?” he suggested.

“Ah, you have a thing for heights, then,” she said, hoping it was a smooth enough transition of topics into what she _really_ wanted to discuss. That and the ferris wheel should give them the perfect opportunity to talk.

Oliver cocked his head, smirking faintly. “I think you knew that already,” he said lightly, nudging her with his elbow.

“All I’ve heard were rumors,” she told him. “I wasn’t sure that was how it really worked.” She smiled at the man working the ride as he let them into one of the ferris wheel cars. It was so early, there wasn’t a line yet.

Oliver slid into the seat, scooting over so she could sit beside him. “Yeah. I like heights. Do they bother you?” His voice was curious.

“No,” she said sincerely. “I prefer heights to underground.”

“Underground?” he echoed curiously.

Chloe hesitated at that but shrugged it off. “Easier to see what is coming,” she said.

He glanced at her sideways, sensing there was more to the story, but not pushing. “Definitely is.” 

Once the ferris wheel started moving, she looked down then turned to him. “So, tell me more about what kind of work you have in mind for me.”

“Intel, hacking, the usual,” he said lightly. “Particularly when it comes to Lex Luthor.” 

Chloe arched her eyebrows at that then nodded. “Sounds good. I think the files from yesterday will give us a better idea of where to look.”

Oliver nodded at that. “I’m sure it will. But I don’t want you to get the wrong idea here, either.” 

She paused at that and frowned. “Meaning?”

He turned his head to look at her. “Meaning...this isn’t just about what you can do for me. I intend to pay you, for starters, for whatever work you do. And I want to try and keep it separate from the rest of our relationship.”

Chloe considered that for a moment, then frowned a little. “Dealing with Lex is personal for me, especially because of his interest in Clark, but also with what he’s doing to those people.” And particularly because she knew he had started looking into it thanks to her own Wall of Weird. “It’s not just about you.”

“I didn’t figure it was. But it could be dangerous, and at the very least, you should be compensated for your time and effort,” he said honestly.

She stared at him for a moment, she didn’t feel right accepting money for this kind of work but, it wasn’t like he couldn’t afford it and extra income would definitely help her situation quite a bit. “As long as you don’t think I’ll hand you the information and you’ll get rid of me.”

Oliver quirked an eyebrow at her. “I have no desire to get rid of you, Chloe.” 

“Good to know,” she said, smiling a little. “I just meant, I want to know what you find too, we share information.” If they were going to work together, she wanted to make sure he wouldn’t try and do the missions on his own and, more importantly, that he wouldn’t keep his findings to himself. 

“Absolutely,” he said without hesitation, nodding. “I agree.” He wasn’t a stupid man. He knew just from what he’d read and heard about Chloe that she was incredibly smart. The short amount of time he’d known her only reinforced that belief. Sharing information and helping each other was only going to benefit everyone involved. 

“Good.” She relaxed a little. “I think this will work out well,” she said sincerely. 

“So do I,” he told her, watching her. “But like I said, I don’t want this to be all about work, either.” 

Chloe considered his words for a moment. She could only guess that he meant they should still be friends and honestly, she enjoyed talking to him so it wasn’t an issue. “We did agree to being friends, first,” she assured him, smiling a little. 

Oliver relaxed at that, smiling back at her. “Yeah, and I enjoy your company,” he said sincerely.

“Me too,” she said just as sincerely. “I can’t promise it won’t get mixed up, but I think we can work on both.”

“Agreed,” he said, holding out his hand to her.

She smiled softly then took his hand, shaking it as she looked at him. 

He shook her hand, too, grinning at her. “You’re going to need a code name,” he said thoughtfully.

“I was just thinking that,” she said, then paused. “I mean, last night when the alarm went off and I had to call for Clark. I was thinking he needed a different name.”

He tried not to smile too much at that. “I call him Boy Scout.” 

Chloe paused and smirked at that. “Not nearly as cool as Green Arrow,” she admitted. 

And _that_ earned her a bright grin. “No, but it fits him.” 

“It does.” She cocked her head. “Who came up with yours? Was it the press?”

Oliver nodded slightly. “And it just stuck.” 

“It’s nice.” She pursed her lips together, thinking. “Not sure what I’d be, though.”

He studied her, thinking for a moment. “Something that indicates you’re my eye in the sky. So to speak anyway.” 

“Satellite sounds a little lame,” she said as she tried to think.

“Yeah, it does,” he agreed with a short chuckle.

“Well, think about it, I’ll do the same,” she told him, smiling as she leaned against the seat. “Your other friend, does he... or she work with you like this too?”

“Not so much of an eye in the sky kind of way,” he told her, draping his arm around the back of their seat. 

Chewing on the inside of her mouth, she considered that and nodded. “I will look closer into those files, maybe we can meet on Monday after work so I can tell you what I found? It’s probably not smart to do this over the phone or email.”

“Yeah, you’re right about that,” he agreed, nodding. “You could come over to the clocktower when you’re done? We can order in or something.” 

“Sure,” she agreed, grinning a little. “And you can tell me all about how you got started, too.”

“Yeah. And we can exchange Clark-in-trouble stories,” he added, smirking.

“Oh we can share those over dinner tonight, embarrassing him is always fun,” she said, grinning more.

“You’ve got a wicked streak,” he teased. 

“Only on occasion.” Chloe smirked as she relaxed against and glanced down at the festival.

“Good to know.” He’d definitely keep it in mind and stay on his toes the best they he could around her. He had a feeling it wasn’t going to be as easy as he hoped.

* * *

They had been at the festival for a few hours already, between the four of them, Chloe was pretty sure they had tried all of the food available there so they were walking some of the calories off even as she and Lois split their deep fried snickers bar. 

“I still don’t know how I feel about it,” Chloe said as she handed it back to Lois. “It should be disgusting, but it’s not.”

Oliver couldn’t help but grimace. “It’s like inviting a heart attack right into your house.” 

“It’s the way they normally eat if unsupervised,” Clark told Oliver. 

“And yet, we’re both alive and healthy,” Chloe added, smirking at them.

“For now,” he responded, smirking back at her. 

Oliver shook his head a little. “We’re doing a terrible job at supervising, clearly.” 

“Like you can tell us what to do,” Lois said after taking another bite of the candy bar. 

“They only listen to one another.” Clark sighed.

“Okay, there’s one more thing we have to do,” Lois announced, grabbing Clark’s arm and pulling him away. “You have to win me something. At a game.” 

Chloe paused and rolled her eyes, shaking her head. “Really, Lo?” She muttered as she watched them go. 

“Well, it wouldn’t be fair,” Clark said even as he grinned down at her. “What would you like?”

“Let’s go with tradition. Win me a bear.” Lois grinned up at him.

Oliver couldn’t help but shake his head, amused, and glanced over at Chloe, arching his eyebrows.

“She didn’t used to be like this,” Chloe told Oliver then paused. “As I’m sure you know.”

He chuckled. “She’s always been pretty...um, headstrong?”

“That’s one way of putting it,” she agreed with a smirk.

“A nicer way than some,” he agreed, offering her his arm. “But I’ll win you something.” 

Chloe took his arm then paused and shook her head. “As easy as I’m sure hitting the target will be for you, you really don’t have to do that.”

“Oh come on. It’ll be fun.” He grinned. 

She watched him for a moment then shrugged a little. “Only because I’m sure you need to prove to Clark you can beat him at it.”

His eyes widened at that. “Maybe I just want to win you a prize.” 

“Uh huh, I know how your kind works,” she teased, grinning at him.

“My kind?” He arched an eyebrow at her. “What kind would that be?” 

“You know, of the male species,” she said, smirking.

Oliver chuckled. “Such a low opinion. We’re not all just alike you know.” There was a hint of teasing in his voice.

“That’s not my experience,” she teased. It was a lie, of course. Oliver and Clark were obviously way better men than her ex-husband.

“I suppose I’ll just have to prove it to you.” He winked at her, leading her over to a dart-game. “Pick your prize.” 

“As untraditional as I can get,” she said as she squinted at the stuffed animals then pointed at the one hanging from the ceiling. “Is that a lemur? Or a monkey?”

“A lemur, I think,” Oliver told her, pointing at the animal, too, and nodding when the guy at the booth picked it up. 

“You have to hit ten balloons for this one,” the man warned, handing him some darts. 

“Ten balloons,” Chloe mock gasped and looked over at Oliver. “Think you can handle it?”

“I don’t know. It’s an awful lot, isn’t it?” He shook his head, hurling the first dart and popping it instantly.

“Beginner’s luck,” she said, arching her eyebrows over at him. “Let’s see if you can do that again.”

A smirk tugged at his mouth and he threw the next dart, then glanced at her sideways. “Are you impressed yet?” 

“Do you have ten balloons yet?” She asked, smirking back at him.

He laughed, throwing two darts with one hand and hitting three balloons. 

Chloe couldn’t help but laugh when she saw the look on the boy who was working the booth’s face. 

Oliver grinned brightly, quickly finishing the game and successfully hitting all the required balloons to win her the stuffed lemur. He handed it over to her. “Here you go, Miss Sullivan,” he said lightly.

“Thank you, Mr. Queen.” She took the lemur and looked at it as they started toward the next booth where Lois and Clark were.

“Maybe I should have tried to win _you_ a bear,” Lois told Clark with a smirk as she tossed another ring, circling one of the bottles easily.

“Looks like you will,” Clark said, grinning as he watched her. 

“And I thought you’d be done by now,” Chloe told them as she stopped behind the couple.

Lois glanced over at her, arching her eyebrows at the lemur and then shifting her gaze to Oliver with a smirk. “Let me guess. Darts?” 

Oliver shrugged. “When you’re good at something, sometimes it’s best to stick with what you know.” 

“Poor kid in the booth is still trying to understand what happened,” Chloe added. “Which one do you want, Clark?” 

He frowned a little and shrugged. “Whatever Lois picks.”

Oliver smirked, winking at Chloe. “I think he wants that one,” he told her, pointing at a bear that had on a red, white and blue shirt. 

“I think that’s perfect,” Chloe agreed, looking over at her cousin. 

“You’ll need five more rings for that,” the girl told them. 

“Easy,” Lois bragged, handing over a few more dollars and accepting more rings from the girl. She missed the next one, but made three in a row. “Two more.” 

“Out of three rings left,” Chloe said, arching her eyebrows. “Go ahead.”

Lois missed the next one, narrowing her eyes. “Oh come on. How did that not make it?” 

Oliver leaned down. “Most of these games are a scam,” he whispered to Chloe. “Most of the bottle necks are just a tad too wide. It’s why most people don’t win.” 

“Oh, I know,” she said, looking over at him. “Which is why I’m surprised you won at all.” She stepped closer to the booth, eyes narrowing a little. “Try the light green one, Lo.”

“That’s why I didn’t pick the ring toss,” Oliver murmured, smirking. 

Lois picked up the ring, aiming for the light green bottle and circling it with the ring easily. She grinned. “Okay, one more.” 

Chloe stared for a moment longer before nodding. “The purple one, back row,” she told Lois, it was definitely narrower than the other bottles, but it was also further away.

She nodded, too, aiming and letting out a whoop when it circled the neck of the bottle. “Hah! I win!” She pointed to the bear that both Chloe and Oliver had pointed to.

The girl handed Lois the bear, looking completely un-enthused then went back to sitting down. 

“Good job,” Chloe told her, grinning up at her cousin. 

Lois beamed, hugging her and then handing the bear over to Clark. “Here you go, Sweetie.” 

“Thank you,” Clark said, smiling and shaking his head as he wrapped an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head.

“All right, I think we’ve done everything there is to do here at this little fair. What do you think, Ollie? Worth the day in Smallville?” Chloe asked.

“Completely,” he said without hesitation, smiling.


	7. Chapter 7

It felt like an eternity until Monday night finally arrived. Work had been slow all day, but at the last minute, when he’d planned to leave early, he’d got called into a meeting. His plans to cook were thrown to the wayside and he wound up ordering food for them instead, barely having time to finish showering and change into a t-shirt and jeans when he heard the buzzing from the intercom system downstairs. He quickly buzzed her in and waited.

Chloe watched as the numbers on the elevator panel changed. She’d been looking forward to this since they’d made plans to meet. She couldn’t stop thinking of all they could do with each other’s help and also, she had really enjoyed spending most of the weekend with him. He was nice, fun and he made her relax and feel less like a screw up. As soon as the elevator doors pulled open, she started out of it, then paused when she saw the gate, looking at it for a moment before reaching out to pull it open.

“Just a little extra security,” he told her as he helped her pull it open, flashing her a grin. “How was your day?” 

“Thank you,” she said as she stepped out of the elevator and smiled brightly at him. “It was good, slow. How was yours?”

“Very slow. But it’s better now.” He shut the gate once more. “So welcome to my home-away-from-home.” He gestured around. “Make yourself comfortable.” 

“It looks great in here,” she said as she looked around then reached to remove her coat. “I’ve always wondered what it’d look like behind the clock.”

He took her coat from her, hanging it up on the coat rack with his own. “Well, why don’t I give you a tour?” he offered.

“Sounds good.” She hung her purse over her coat before turning toward him again.

“Well, this is obviously the living room.” He smiled, heading down the hall and pausing by the kitchen. “And the kitchen. There’s a dining room off to the other side,” he told her, flipping on the light.

“It’s a lot bigger than it looks,” she admitted, looking around the area for a moment. 

He nodded in agreement. “It’ll be good for when...” He paused, glancing at her. “We start getting more people involved.” 

“Is that your plan?” She asked, surprised as she arched her eyebrows.

Oliver pursed his lips, nodding. “Part of it, yeah. I know there are other people out there with abilities. People who can use those abilities for good. We just have to find them.” 

“There certainly are,” she agreed. “So you basically want to make a team of people with abilities?”

“That’s one of the goals,” he said. “Or even people who are doing the vigilante thing without powers.” 

“Like you,” she said with a smile. “So, do you wanna just focus on Lex and the 33.1s or, do you wanna go beyond that?”

“Well, mostly right now I want to focus on Lex and 33.1, but...we both know there’s a world full of trouble out there beyond that. People who need help. People whose lives we can help save.” He met her eyes. “We can change the world.” 

She couldn’t help but smile as he spoke, at the _way_ he spoke and at his words. It was nice to see how passionate he was about this. “Something simple, then,” she teased, a grin appearing on her lips.

He couldn’t help but grin back at her, almost sheepish. “Exactly.” 

“I think it’s great,” she said sincerely. “That someone like you is interested in doing something like this. Not that money is everything but it certainly helps making things happen. And when you add your influence and everything you _already do_...” she trailed off, shaking her head. “I just don’t see how it could not work.”

“Here’s hoping. I mean, between the two of us, and Clark and Lois, I think we can make this happen.” 

“And Clark is okay with the whole, coming out of the superhero closet to other people thing?” She asked, arching her eyebrows.

He hesitated. “He’s not as enthusiastic about the possibilities.” 

“That’s what I thought,” she said, smiling a little. “But, between the three of us, I’m sure we can convince him.”

Oliver nodded. “You and Lois will probably have more luck than I will,” he told her as her phone began to ring.

“Speak of the devil, that’s probably her forgetting I said I wouldn’t be back for dinner,” Chloe told him with a smile as she walked over to her purse and pulled her phone out. She frowned then a number showed up instead of a name but since she recognized the area code as Kansas City’s she figured it could be a lawyer or something, so she decided to answer it. “Hello?”

“You owe me $500 dollars,” a familiar voice announced without so much as a hello in return.

Chloe paused, her stomach clenching when she recognized Jimmy’s voice. “Excuse me?” She said, her jaw tightening as she turned away from Oliver. “I don’t owe you anything.”

“It’s your share of the month’s rent,” Jimmy retorted. 

She straightened at that, she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “I don’t _live_ there anymore, Jimmy. Why would I pay for your apartment?”

“Because your name is on the contract. So either you can pay willingly or I can drag you to court and make you pay,” he told her. “And you know they will, because it’s legally binding.” 

Oliver frowned, watching her for a moment.

“Actually, you should double check your facts before you make accusations. My name _isn’t_ on the contract, it hasn’t been since I moved out. My lawyer sent a letter to the apartment complex to make sure of it. On top of that, I would have a pretty easy time proving that I’m not even living in the city anymore, let alone in that apartment.” Her voice was tight and angry as she spoke, she wasn’t a violent person but Jimmy she wished she could slap. 

“I _did_ double check my facts, but whatever. I guess I’ll just see you in court then,” he said angrily, hanging up on her.

With her jaw tight, she took a deep breath as she pulled her phone from her ear, mostly to stop herself from screaming in frustration. It was amazing how quickly he managed to completely ruin her mood. 

Oliver watched her for a moment, then stepped a little closer to her. “So...not Lois,” he murmured.

Chloe almost cringed when he spoke. With another deep breath, she shook her head and dropped her phone back inside her purse. “Not Lois.” 

He pursed his lips, frown deepening. “He really wanted you to pay his rent?” 

“Apparently, since my name was on the contract, he thinks I should,” she said, rubbing a hand over her face and shaking her head. “I’m sure Lois told you all about what a lovely person he turned out to be.”

“Lois is...not a fan of Jimmy. Which I’m sure you know.” He arched his eyebrows. 

“She never was,” Chloe told him. “She actually tried to talk me out of marrying him before the engagement party. Now I wish I had listened.”

He was quiet for a moment. “Sometimes we have to figure things out for ourselves,” he said gently. “It’s not always easy.” 

“I know,” she agreed quietly then shrugged. “I guess it’s done, at least. Or mostly done anyway.”

“Just not finalized?” he asked, leaning against the counter.

“Yeah,” Chloe looked at him for a moment then moved to sit down on one of the chairs by the dining room table. “He is insisting I cheated on him, he’s spending a fortune on his lawyer, trying to prove it so that he will take more from me.”

Oliver frowned, moving to sit down across from her. “Who’s _your_ lawyer?” he asked worriedly.

“I got his name from a counselor. He’s from Kansas City, I’m sure you haven’t heard of him. It’s a small firm, just him and a partner,” she told him.

“Is he good?” 

“He’s been okay, so far. It’s not like there _is_ anything for Jimmy to find,” she said, arching her eyebrows a little.

“No, I wasn’t--I didn’t think there was,” he said honestly. “But if he’s spending a fortune trying to prove otherwise, it sounds like he might be willing to plant evidence.” He pursed his lips. “Do you want something to drink?” 

Chloe hesitated, then nodded a little. “Sure.” She took a deep breath as she considered what he said before the question. “I don’t know how he would manage to plant evidence, wouldn’t they need some kind of photographic proof?”

“Not necessarily. Just enough evidence to plant doubt in the judge’s mind.” He poured each of them a drink, moving over and setting hers down before sitting down again.

“Thank you,” she said as she picked up her glass and sipped on the amber liquid, surprised when it didn’t burn her throat, so she took another sip before setting her glass down. “I guess I’ll give my lawyer a call tomorrow.”

Oliver hesitated a second, resting his arms on the table. He hoped she wouldn’t take what he was about to say the wrong way. “If you decide on a different lawyer, I’d more than happy to help out.” 

“Thank you,” she repeated. “I might take you up on a recommendation if it comes down to it.”

“Absolutely,” he told her, taking a drink. 

“I’m sorry about the interruption,” she told him, watching him for a moment before taking a drink, too.

“No need to apologize,” Oliver said sincerely. 

Chloe nodded, smiling a little before sipping on her drink once more. 

“What do you think?” he asked, figuring she’d appreciate a change in topic. He took another drink, as well. 

“It’s good,” she said, looking down at the glass. “What is it?”

“Scotch,” he told her with a small smile. “1938.” 

“Wow,” she said, nodding a little. “I didn’t expect it to be so nice. I’ve never tried scotch before.”

Oliver smiled a bit more, nodding. “It’s smooth.” 

“That’s the unexpected part,” she admitted, nodding. 

“Yeah, a lot of the harder liquors hurt when they go down,” he told her, taking another sip. 

“ _That_ is my experience,” she agreed. “Anyway, I should show you what I found in my research,” she said as she stood up and heading toward her purse once more. Work was the best way to stop thinking about Jimmy. 

“Sure.” He set his glass aside, rising to his feet and following her into the living room.

Chloe pulled out a folder from her purse, with a huge stack of paper inside. “I printed out all of the files that were in there. They are all from experiments and I figured it might not be a bad idea for us to have hard copies of them, just in case.” She looked down at the coffee table, then at him. “Can I set them up here?”

“Definitely. Make yourself at home,” he told her, arching his eyebrows. 

“Thanks,” she said as she set the folder down and opened it, pulling out different stacks of paper and setting them apart. “Okay, so, this one seems to have been processed all in the same facility. I was able to find three different facilities in these files.”

Oliver sat down on the sofa, pursing his lips and glancing over all of the stacks before picking up the one nearest to him. “All in Kansas? Or is he branching out?” 

“I can’t tell,” she admitted. “Whatever it is, this one seems to be the biggest facilities. I saw nine tests being conducted on the same day, while the other two, I’ve seen two with the same date, tops. But I can’t tell where they are. The facility names are some kind of code. This one is called BCM-32.” 

Oliver frowned at that, cocking his head to the side. “That sounds familiar,” he murmured, trying to remember where he’d seen or heard it before.

“I wasn’t able to cross-reference it with anything else,” she admitted. “The other two have more similar names. One is GBR-13 and the other is GVS-15.” 

Oliver paused, glancing at her sideways. “That first one’s Grandville Belle Reve,” he said grimly.

Chloe blinked at that and looked down at the files, her eyes widened. “Of course.” 

“So he’s pulling out more patients from Belle Reve,” he murmured.

“And I will bet you anything that GVS is Grandville Sumerholt,” she told him, eyes narrowing. “It’s only about ten miles away from Belle Reve and supposedly, it’s been deactivated.”

Oliver grimaced. “I bet you’re right.” 

“Those are both local, then. But what is BCM?” She asked even as she tried to think.

He shook his head. “I _know_ I’ve heard it somewhere.” Pursing his lips once more, he moved over to his computer desk, firing up his laptop.

Chloe stood up and followed him. “I figured the numbers have to do with something like how many people the facility can hold. Or how many labs they have available, which makes sense considering the big difference between numbers of research conducted in each one.”

He paused. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He glanced up at her, typing in his password quickly. 

She looked down at him then at his screen once it was unlocked. “Do you have a lot on him?”

“Quite a bit,” he admitted. “This whole computer is dedicated to everything I have on him so far.” He hesitated, then rose to his feet, motioning for her to sit down in his chair. 

“Really?” She asked, surprised that he was trusting her with all his information. Not that she could steal any of it, or had reason to, but still, it was a lot.

“Partners, right?” He arched his eyebrows.

“Definitely,” she said, smiling sincerely at him before taking the offered seat.

Oliver smiled back at her, relaxing, and then pulling another chair up so he could sit beside her. “So I know that Lex and Clark used to be friends. I’m guessing you were, too?” 

“More like acquaintances?” She said, shrugging a little. “We worked together for a while, back in the day. But his interest was always in Clark.”

“Given what Clark can do, I’m not really surprised,” he admitted, folding his hands together and resting his elbows on his knees.

“Well and we better hope he never really finds out all of what Clark can do,” she said, taking a deep breath a she started looking at Oliver’s files.

“No kidding.” His jaw tightened slightly at the thought.

“I know he agrees with us,” she told Oliver, smiling a little. “So we better keep it that way.” She paused then and cocked her head. “The two of you went to school together, didn’t you?”

He didn’t look at her, but he nodded slightly. “Yeah. We did,” he said, voice dropping a little.

“I guess we all share unpleasant experiences with Lex,” she said, noticing the look on his face.

“Truthfully, I can’t blame Lex for my unpleasant experiences at Excelsior. Not really.” 

“Oh,” she said, surprised and looked at him once again, but didn’t push it.

“It’s...a long story,” he admitted quietly.

“Got it,” she said quietly, smiling a little then nodding at him.

“I’ll tell you about it some other time,” he assured her.

“No problem,” she told him. “We all have things we rather not talk about.”

Oliver tried to smile, but didn’t quite manage it. “I’m gonna go get our drinks,” he told her, rising to his feet.

“Thanks,” she said, watching him go for a moment before taking a deep breath and focusing on his computer again. Maybe Lois knew what he meant, so Chloe’d managed to steer clear of the subject.


	8. Chapter 8

Chloe had been trying her hardest to calm herself down since she’d heard, but even an hour later, she still couldn’t manage to. She was already late for her meeting with Oliver, the first time she was late in the two weeks since they started meeting up after work to discuss Lex and all their other plans. Also the first time she just wanted to go over to his place, have a couple of drinks and scream, but she knew that work was the only thing that might actually calm her down, so she was going to have to at least try to focus. 

Of course that’d be easier if her hands weren’t shaking. Maybe she should just have called Lois and told her instead, but she knew she couldn’t. Not today of all days when she and Clark had left work early to ‘have an actual date’ where Clark promised he wouldn’t just speed off if he heard something. So Oliver was going to have to hear about it. Or not. She couldn’t decide which would be better. 

As the elevator doors opened, she pushed the gate out of the way instantly, with more force than she meant to, causing it to make a loud noise as it hit the end of the railing. She winced, her jaw clenching. “Sorry,” she said even as she looked over at the gate to make sure she hadn’t damaged it.

Oliver smiled as he got up from his desk to greet her, bu he quickly saw the tension in her posture and his smile had evaporated. Even more so when she slammed the gate open and stepped off the elevator. He shut his computer down and rose to his feet. “What’s wrong?” 

Of course he was going to read her that easily, they had been seeing each other pretty much every day. Looked like alcohol and screaming would have to do. With a deep breath, she looked at him and shook her head as she dropped her purse and coat over the smaller couch. “I don’t even know how to begin answering that question.”

Now he was just worried. His frown deepened and he moved over to her side, sliding his arm around her waist. “All right, well, why don’t I fix us a drink and you can just start at the beginning?” he suggested, leading her toward the kitchen.

She leaned a little against him and nodded. “Drink is a good start,” she admitted as she walked with him.

He guided her to the table, pulling out a chair for her and arching his eyebrows. “What kind of drink sounds good? Beer, wine, scotch, or mixed?” 

“Scotch,” she answered without blinking as she leaned against the table instead of taking the chair. She was too agitated to sit down.

He searched her eyes for a moment, then nodded. “Scotch it is.” He moved over to his cabinet, pulling out the bottle and pouring each of them a glass. “Now what’s going on?” 

Chloe took a long sip of her drink first then with a deep breath, she looked over at Oliver. “Jimmy is having a kid,” she said, her jaw clenching even as she spoke.

He blinked a couple of times, eyes widening. “ _What?_ ” 

“Yeah.” She smiled, even though there was no humor in it. “Best part? She works at the Planet. And she’s _seven_ months pregnant. We started the divorce process five months ago.” 

Oliver winced at that, setting his drink down. “I’m sorry.” His voice was sincere.

“I could _kill_ him right now,” she said, shaking her head as she drank what was left in her glass.

“He’s an asshole,” he responded, jaw clenching. 

“I don’t know if I’m more offended by the fact that _he_ was cheating on _me_ or the fact that I had _no idea!_ ” Her voice rose and she pushed away from the table and grabbed the bottle, pouring herself another drink.

He pursed his lips, watching her and listening silently as she vented her anger. He took a drink of his own scotch and set it back down once more.

“I mean, _he_ was the one who proposed, I wasn’t even thinking about getting married, and then we had to move to Kansas City because he couldn’t find himself a job here. And she was already going out with him to stalk celebrities for her _stupid_ column then. For all I know, this has been going on all along!”

He shook his head, feeling disgusted. Jimmy Olsen was clearly one of the stupidest people on the planet, as far as he was concerned.

Chloe poured herself another glass and took a long drink. “I don’t know what to do.”

“I’d say call your lawyer,” he suggested, arching his eyebrows. 

“I will, tomorrow,” she agreed, breathing. “But I guess I don’t even have a way of knowing for sure it is his.”

“If she’s seven months pregnant, a DNA test can be done as soon as the kid is born. Court-ordered under the circumstances. It should be enough to at least delay the proceedings if you want to take him for everything he’s worth,” he said honestly.

“Yeah,” she agreed, looking down at her glass and finishing it off too. “I just feel so stupid.”

He reached out and rested his hand on her shoulder, shaking his head. “You’re not stupid, Chloe,” he said seriously.

“I know,” she said quietly then shook her head. “I just never imagined...”

“He’s an _idiot_.” He gazed at her. “You’re an amazing woman, Chloe, and if he’s too stupid to realize it, he never deserved you in the first place.” 

Her eyes teared up a little, mostly out of anger but also the betrayal she felt. With a deep breath, she nodded. “I know. Now I know.”

He held his breath at the sight of his tears. Wordlessly, he shifted closer, wrapping his arms around her in a tight hug.

Chloe set her glass down on the counter then hugged him back just as tightly, turning her head against his chest as she closed her eyes. 

Oliver lifted his hand up to gently cup the back of her head, resting his chin atop her head. It dawned on him that they had never hugged before, but there was something comforting about it.

She tightened her arms around him even more and took a deep, calming breath. “Thank you,” she whispered, but didn’t pull away. She and Oliver had grown a lot closer in these past couple of weeks, she knew that he was about as lonely as she felt and the fact that they knew about the same secrets made him so easy to talk to, so comforting.

“Anytime,” he whispered, rubbing her back gently.

For a long time, she didn’t move. In fact, she didn’t move at all until she felt a little more in control of herself. With a deep breath, she pulled back and looked up at him. “I-- Do you mind if I stay here tonight?”

“I’d prefer it,” Oliver said honestly, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze.

Chloe let out a breath and nodded. “Thank you.”

He nodded, too, considering her for a moment. “I think under the circumstances, we should take a break from work for the night, and do something fun.” 

She tried for a smile but didn’t quite manage. “I don’t know if I’ll be the best company for something fun.” She paused. “Now if you wanna take me on patrol to beat the crap out of a bad guy, that might help.”

He cocked his head to the side. “What about some sparring?” 

“You mean with you?” She asked, frowning.

“Well...yeah. If you really want to.” He arched his eyebrows.

“I’ve never tried anything like it,” she admitted. “But it sounds like a good way to work out the stress.”

“It is,” he agreed, nodding. “Okay, why don’t we both change clothes.” He paused, realizing she didn’t have any extra clothes there. “I’ll get you a t-shirt and some sweat pants?” he offered.

“Okay,” she breathed, not hesitating before reaching for her shoes and pulling them off. 

He reached out, holding his hand out to her and arching his eyebrows. “Come on.” 

Chloe took his hand and followed him down the hallway. She felt a little numb now, not as angry but still angry enough. She wasn’t sure if she wanted to yell or cry, but doing some kind of fighting with Oliver sounded good, too.

* * * 

Over two hours later, after they’d both showered, Oliver dropped onto his sofa, glancing at her sideways. “How do you feel now?” 

“Exhausted,” she said as she plopped down next to him.

He smiled a bit at that. “Well, that was kind of the point.” 

“I’m definitely not complaining,” she told him, smiling a little too.

“Are you hungry?” he asked, laying his head against the back of the couch. “I could pop something into the oven, or we could order in.” 

“Let’s order some pizza?” She suggested, leaning back too and turning her head to look at him.

“Pizza sounds good,” he agreed, reaching out and picking his phone up off the table. He dialed their favorite pizza place and made the order, having done it a few times now and remembering what she liked on hers. 

“You’re amazing,” she said, smiling a little more this time.

He cocked head to the side. “I’m glad you think so, but what makes you say that?”

“You mean other than everything you’ve done for me tonight?” She asked.

“Oh.” He smiled at that. “Well, that’s what friends are for.” He draped his arm around her shoulders, giving her an affectionate squeeze.

Chloe shifted closer to him and leaned against his side. “And you’re a good one,” she said, taking his hand in hers.

“So are you,” he told her, sliding his fingers into hers and rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand.

“I’m so glad you hit on Lois at that fundraiser,” she teased, leaning her head against his shoulder.

Oliver chuckled, leaning his head against hers, as well. “I think it’s worked out pretty well.” 

“It did,” she agreed, closing her eyes. “You know, other than Clark and Pete, when we were in high school, I don’t think I ever became close friends with someone as quickly as we did.”

“Me either,” he admitted. “With anyone, really. I mean, aside from Lois and Clark, but that wasn’t really as easy as this has been.” He was quiet for a moment. “I think we just really clicked.” 

“I guess we did,” she said quietly, closing her eyes. “And I’m sure the fact that we know the same secrets helps.”

“Definitely does. And that you know my secret.” He closed his eyes, too.

“And I’m happy that I do, otherwise, I’d never be able to help you,” she added, her fingers brushing over his hand.

He smiled softly at that, relaxing more. “Plus it makes it easier to be friends with someone when there aren’t any huge secrets hanging over your head.” 

“That’s true,” she agreed. She knew that well.

“Wanna watch a movie?” he asked, his voice quiet.

Chloe took a deep breath and nodded a little. “As long as you won’t be offended if I fall asleep during it.”

Oliver grinned at that. “I was kind of thinking I might fall asleep, too,” he confessed.

“We should probably make sure we stay awake until pizza,” she said, lifting her head to look at him but still leaning it against his shoulder.

“Oh, right. Pizza. Almost forgot.” He chuckled. 

“I’d have too, if I wasn’t hungry,” she admitted, smiling.

Oliver reached up, tugging lightly on the ends of her still-wet hair. “I still need to cook for you sometime.” 

“You do,” she agreed, grinning softly. “What are you gonna make me?”

“I don’t know.” He cocked his head to the side, thinking about it. “What do you _want_ me to make you?” 

Chloe chewed on the inside of her mouth for a moment as she considered her answer, he had told her a few of his specialties before. “Pancakes?”

“That’s fairly easy. We don’t have to limit it, though. I can make pancakes sometime...maybe tomorrow morning,” he said, arching his eyebrows. “Since you’re staying here tonight anyway.” 

“Do you have everything you need?” She asked, surprised.

“Yep.” He nodded, grinning.

“Even chocolate chips?” She asked.

He quirked an eyebrow. “No? But I have blueberries.” 

She mock wrinkled her nose then nodded. “I suppose they will do, this time.”

Oliver smirked at her. “I’ll stock up on. What are some other Chloe-friendly foods I should keep on hand for when you’re here?” 

“Coffee,” she said, smirking back at him. “Bagels, mac and cheese...” she told him then paused. “You know, healthy stuff. Oh and cheetos,” she teased.

He chuckled again, shaking his head and kissing her temple without really thinking about it as he heard the buzzer. “Guess that’s our pizza.” 

Chloe took a deep breath and stretched as she pulled away from him then stood up.

He rose to his feet, as well. “If you wanna grab some drinks from the fridge, I’ll wait on the pizza, or vice versa.” 

“I’ll get the pizza,” she told him, yawning.

Nodding, he gave her arm a squeeze and headed for the kitchen, pulling down some clean glasses and pulling some sodas from the fridge. 

She picked up her wallet and waited by the elevator, pulling out the cash then taking the pizza before closing the gate in place again and heading back toward the living room.

Oliver poured each of them a drink and set them down on the counter for a minute before putting the bottle back into the fridge. Then he carried their drinks back into the living room. “What are you in the mood to watch?” 

“Thanks,” she said as she opened the pizza box. “I don’t know... Kill Bill?” She asked, her stomach tightening a little as she remembered Jimmy and Cat for the first time since she got out of the shower.

“Sure,” he told her, glancing at her as he sat down. 

“I’m joking,” she said, shaking her head. “We can watch anything.”

He set their drinks down and rested a hand lightly on her back. “I honestly don’t have a preference right now. So if you want to watch Kill Bill, that’s fine with me.” 

“Okay,” she agreed, shrugging a little as she picked up a slice of the pizza.

He picked up the TV remote, selecting the movie from Netflix and pushing play before picking up a piece of pizza, too.

Chloe glanced over at him and smiled softly before taking a bite of her food.

He smiled back, glad that she’d been comfortable enough to open up to him about what she’d been upset about.


	9. Chapter 9

Oliver couldn’t help feeling nervous at the news that Lex Luthor was holding a press conference at noon that day. All morning, he tried to focus on work, but he couldn’t seem to get passed wondering what the bald man was up to this time. Whatever it was, it couldn’t possibly be good news. He was a little surprised that neither Clark nor Lois had been included in the conference, considering all their front page bylines recently. When the two of them showed up at his office, Chloe right behind them, he smiled at them despite the tension he was feeling. 

“I figured you guys would be there live,” he admitted.

“Oddly enough, our names were not on the ‘must invite’ list,” Lois said with a smirk. 

“My partner is covering it,” Chloe added as she closed the door behind them.

He nodded, hitting a button on a remote control and pursing his lips as a large TV screen dropped down. He turned it on, holding his breath as the press conference started.

Chloe watched him for a moment then moved to sit down on the arm of the couch as Clark and Lois sat on it. “You okay?” She asked Oliver quietly. 

“Yeah. Just a little wary as to what’s going on,” he murmured, glancing at her sideways as he stood beside her.

“If it was bad, he wouldn’t be announcing it,” she pointed out and reached for his hand, giving it a light squeeze. 

He arched an eyebrow. “Yeah, but our definition of bad and Lex’s are two very different things.” 

“True, but it can’t be worse than what we already know he’s doing to all those people,” she added, arching an eyebrow back. 

“Most people at work think it’s a merger of some kind,” Clark added, keeping his eyes on the TV.

Oliver shook his head slightly. “If that was the case, I’d have heard about it by now.” He had more than a few dozen ears to the ground when it came to that sort of information. 

“Shh, it’s starting,” Lois said.

Chloe let go of his hand and checked on her phone quickly to see if Richard had any updates yet, but when there were no messages, she focused on the TV with the rest of them.

Lex stepped up to the podium, smiling even as Oliver grimaced. 

With her jaw tight, Chloe watched at Lex introduced a new branch of LuthorCorp. He spoke of LexCorp, which apparently was going to focus on scientific and technological research ‘for a better future’. 

“And by that, he means he’s going to increase his studies of people with abilities,” Oliver said bitterly, eyes narrowed and dark.

“And he will use the support of LexCorp investors to fund it,” Chloe added, nodding in agreement. 

“But we won’t be able to prove that,” Clark sighed.

“Not without a lot of--” Oliver’s voice trailed off as a familiar red-head stepped up to the podium beside Lex. His face drained of all color.

“Without a lot of?” Chloe echoed as she turned to look at Oliver, frowning at the look on his face.

“Oh, hell _no_ ,” Lois muttered, rising to her feet. “Are they kidding me with this shit?” 

Chloe turned her attention toward her cousin. “What?” She asked, having no idea what she was missing.

“That’s Tess freaking Mercer,” Lois told her, eyes narrowed.

“Your Tess Mercer?” Clark asked, looking over at Oliver. 

Still not quite understanding it, Chloe turned her attention to Oliver once again.

“The one and only,” he said, almost inaudibly, eyes glued to the screen. He listened as Lex introduced her as his new Vice President of Lexcorp. Rubbing a hand over his face, he shook his head, feeling ill, then turned and headed out the door wordlessly. He didn’t know where he was going, but right then, he really needed some air.

“Who is she?” Chloe asked Lois once Oliver was gone.

Lois pursed her lips, body tense. “Ollie’s ex-fiancee.” 

“Oh,” Chloe muttered, her eyes widening a little as she looked at the TV for a moment longer, watching as the woman handed Lex a piece of paper and Lex whispered something in her ear before turning toward the microphone again. “I’ll check on him,” she told Lois and Clark before starting out of the office, too.

He was outside the building, sitting on a bench across the street from QI when she finally found him. His elbows were resting on his knees as he stared at the ground, jaw tense.

Instead of approaching him right away, she watched him for a moment, then slowly walked to where he was and took a seat next to him, but remained silent.

“I can’t believe...” He shook his head, unable to find the right words to express his anger and hurt over what he’d just learned. And he wasn’t even sure whom he was most upset with: Lex, Tess, or himself. 

Chloe felt terrible that she didn’t know anything about the other woman. In fact, she hadn’t even known that Oliver had been engaged. She knew he had recently broken up with someone but she assumed it had been a girlfriend. “Why do you think she’s working for him?” She asked in a whisper as she lifted a hand to his back.

“To get back at me,” he said without hesitation, rubbing a hand over his face.

And it was obviously working. “Why?”

He held his breath for a minute, then glanced at her sideways. “She knew I was hiding something. Something big. She thought that I was cheating on her, but I wasn’t.” 

Her face fell at his quiet admission and she shifted closer. “I’m sorry, Ollie.” 

He exhaled slowly, rubbing his hands over his face. “I can’t believe she let herself get sucked into Lex’s bullshit.” 

“Do you think it’d do any good if you tried talking to her?” She asked, rubbing her hand over his back.

He shook his head. “She wants nothing to do with me. She changed her number and everything,” he admitted.

“Do you think she has any idea how dangerous he is?” She asked.

“She’s not stupid,” he said quietly. “She knows he’s into a lot of unsavory business dealings.” 

“So if you think she’d doing this to get back at you, maybe if you contact her, she will get out before it’s too late?” Chloe suggested.

“I think if I contact her, she’ll know she got to me and she’ll do what she can to twist the knife a little more.” 

“Makes sense,” she agreed quietly, giving up on the idea of him contacting the woman. “But you know you weren’t doing anything wrong and this was her choice, Oliver.”

He pursed his lips, nodding a little. “I know. I just wish that...” He sighed softly, looking down. “Things between us were always very complicated. I could never put my finger on it, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell her about my double life.” His voice dropped.

“If she’s someone who would turn to Lex Luthor just to get back at an ex, I’m glad you didn’t,” she whispered, frowning.

He leaned against her, sighing heavily, shoulders slumping. “I need a drink.” 

“Do you wanna head to the Clocktower?” She suggested, rubbing his shoulders gently. “Or we can go have lunch at the Ace of Clubs.”

“Maybe lunch and then the Clocktower. I don’t forsee a lot of work getting done today,” he confessed, glancing at her with a rueful smile.

“Okay,” she agreed, nodding as she stood up. “We can do that.”

“Don’t you have to go back to work today?” he asked uncertainly, looking up at her.

“Yeah,” she admitted, pursing her lips together then shrugging. “But I can take a couple of hours at least. And I can come back after work.”

He drew in a breath, nodding slightly and standing up. Wordlessly he pulled her into a hug, resting his chin atop her head. “Thanks,” he said quietly.

“Anytime,” she said quietly, wrapping her arms around him tightly and closing her eyes. “I’m sorry she’s doing this.”

“Yeah. Me too,” he murmured.

“How long has it been? Since you two broke up?” She asked, cocking her head as she lifted it to look at him.

“About six months,” he said, pursing his lips.

“Not that long,” she said quietly, shaking her head then watching him. “At least, from the little that I know, it does look like you’re better off without her.”

He smiled at that, but it was faint. “I just hope she knows what she’s doing,” he told her.

“I do too,” she said sincerely as she pulled away from him. Because she had experience with dealing with Lex and the Luthors in general, and even if you knew what to expect, it still wasn’t enough.

“Like you said, she made her choice,” he murmured, holding her gaze for a moment. “She’ll have to live with it.” 

“But you won’t,” she said firmly, arching her eyebrows as she held his gaze. “You’re not responsible for it.”

“Somehow I have a feeling you’re not going to let me forget that anytime soon.” 

“Not anymore than I expect you to let me forget I’m not responsible for Jimmy being an idiot,” she said sincerely, smiling softly up at him.

He couldn’t help but smile at that, nodding a little and then draping his arm around her shoulders. “Point taken.” 

Chloe wrapped an arm around his back and hugged him to her side a little. “After we have a drink or two, we can call Lois and Clark and tell them where we are.”

“Sounds like a plan.” 

* * *

She had actually made the drive back to Smallville that night since Oliver wanted to patrol. It was about nine when she pulled up to the farm and she was exhausted already. Between the press conference, hanging out with Oliver and how crazy work had been, she hadn’t stopped for a minuted. With a yawn, she stepped into the house, arching her eyebrows at her quiet it was. “I’m home,” she called, just in case. 

“Oh, good.” Lois appeared from the kitchen. She studied her for a moment. “How’s Ollie?”

“Better, I think. He was gonna go patrol,” Chloe said as she looked around. “Is Clark out?”

“Yeah. Same reason.” She pursed her lips. “Want a brownie?” 

“Sure.” She dropped her purse and removed her coat before starting into the kitchen, petting Shelby on her way. 

Lois cut the pan of brownies she’d finished making and set one on a plate, then pulled down another plate, as well. “Clark monitored me to make sure I was using all the right measurements.” She smirked.

“Well, it doesn’t look burned, so that’s a good start,” she teased before carefully studying the brownie and hesitantly taking a bite. 

She smirked more, taking a bite of her own brownie and plopping down at the table with a sigh.

“It’s actually not bad,” she said, smiling at Lois a little. It was hard to bite into, but the actual flavor wasn’t terrible. “What’s wrong?” She asked as she reached for the milk in the fridge to help with the brownie.

“It’s hard,” she complained, dropping her brownie to the plate once more. “What did I do wrong now?” She groaned and shook her head. Then she glanced at her cousin. “Nothing. Just a long day.”

“It’s not super hard,” Chloe paused and cocked her head, putting the milk away and reaching for the ice cream in the freezer instead. “Here, let’s try this.”

Lois cocked an eyebrow, then nodded. “Good idea.” 

She scooped ice cream over both their brownies before sitting down. “Let it soak for a while. And tell me all about Oliver and Tess.”

“I never actually met her, but he used to talk about her a lot. It was...a rough break up.” She moved the brownie and ice cream around on her plate.

“It sounds like it was. He seemed pretty hurt about the whole thing but more like... he felt responsible for it?” Chloe shook her head. “Which, if Tess just assumed he was cheating on her when he wasn’t, he’s about as guilty as I am when it comes to Jimmy.”

Lois glanced over at her. “Right, but Ollie’s got the whole hero complex,” she pointed out. “Obviously he’s responsible for the bad choices that everyone he knows makes.” 

“I guess you have a point, but I think if we all work on that, we can at least keep his Tess-related guilt to a minimum.” At least, she thought she’d been making progress so far.

She nodded, looking thoughtful. “You’re probably the best person to help him with that.” 

“You and Clark know him better, and you know their history better,” she said, arching her eyebrows.

“Well, I know he cared about her. But it always seemed like they were fighting about something. Mostly about how he was spending his time, which...” She shrugged. “The whole Green Arrow thing made things difficult for them since she didn’t know.” 

“And he mentioned he didn’t feel right telling her, which, if she’s Luthor’s lapdog now, I’m glad he didn’t,” she said. She didn’t know much about Tess Mercer still, but she already didn’t like her.

Lois made a face. “Agreed.” 

“So, other than repeating to him over and over again that it isn’t his fault, how can we help him?” Chloe asked, finally taking another bite of her brownie.

“Distract him,” Lois said immediately. “Especially if he starts brooding.” 

“Distract him? _How_? I mean, we hang out but mostly, we’re working on the Lex stuff,” she said and reached for another bite. “This is much better, by the way.”

Lois took a bite of the ice cream and brownie, nodding her agreement and approval. “I don’t know. Do more fun stuff. Watch movies or go to the beach or something. If you express interest, it’ll get him away from work stuff, which means he won’t be thinking about Tess. Plus both of you need a break once in awhile.” 

“I don’t know about a beach, that’s kind of far away, but I guess I can do movies and stuff like that,” Chloe agreed with a nod. 

“Oh, and dinners. Out, I mean. There are a lot of new places opening up. You guys should explore some of them. Oh, and clubs.” 

Chloe made a face at that and shook her head. “I don’t mind doing dinners, but I don’t think clubs are really our scene, Lo.”

“Hey you never know.” Lois shrugged.

“I guess I’ll see what he feels like doing,” she said, shrugging too.

“There you go.” Lois smiled.

Chloe considered her next words for a moment. “You don’t mind me spending more time at the Clocktower, do you? I mean, I figured at least you and Clark could have some more alone time that way.”

“I don’t mind.” She fought the urge to grin. “And I know Ollie enjoys your company.” 

“He’s a good friend,” Chloe told Lois, taking another bite of the ice cream-soaked brownie. 

“Yes, he is,” Lois agreed.

“I’ll stop by after work tomorrow,” she said, not that the conversation with Lois had made her decide that, in fact, she had already been planning ways to distract Oliver for the whole weekend while she drove back to Smallville. 

“Cool.” She took another bite of her brownie and ice cream, studying her cousin. 

Chloe paused and cocked her head at the look on Lois’ face. “What?”

“Nothing,” she said with a shrug.

“Sure,” she said even as she kept her eyes on Lois but shrugged it off. Between Lex, everything that was going on with Oliver, and Jimmy, Cat and their alleged kid, she knew better than to force information out of Lois when she had _that_ look on her face. She had enough on her plate as it was.


	10. Chapter 10

They’d been preparing for this for such a long time that even as Chloe changed in Oliver’s guest bedroom, she felt like she wasn’t moving fast enough to get it _done_. They knew it had to be the perfect opportunity, the perfect timing for them to get away with it. A day when everyone’s attention, especially Lex’s would be completely focused on something else. 

Of course, there had been no argument as to when that day would be once they heard about LuthorCorp’s gala to benefit the new LexCorp. Even Lex’s staff would be there, a lot of them, anyway. The higher ups for sure. So they knew today was the one opportunity they’d have to finally figure out what BCM meant and hopefully be able to locate even more 33.1 facilities. 

With a deep breath, she zipped up her black jacket and picked up her gloves from the bed before making her way out of the bedroom. “Are you ready?” She called to Oliver, looking around.

He appeared a moment later, dressed in his uniform. “Ready,” he said, voice already mechanical.

“Okay, Arrow,” she said, a smirk appearing on her lips when she saw him. “Now you need to decide what you’ll be calling me.” She reached for a earpiece and slid it in place.

Oliver smirked back at her, lowering his glasses a little. “Watchtower,” he responded.

“Watchtower,” she echoed, considering for a moment then nodded. “Better than Satellite, for sure.”

“And there’s a great song about it.” He smirked a bit more.

“All Along the Watchtower,” she said knowingly. “Alright, I’ll accept it.”

That earned her a grin. “Said the joker to the thief.” 

“Well, clearly, you’re the thief in this situation, but I’m not sure I’m the most qualified joker. Although I heard rumors about this guy in Gotham...” she teased, grinning.

“I think technically we’re _both_ thieves in this situation.” He reached out, picking up a helmet and holding it out to her.

“I suppose there is some truth. But is it still theft when you steal from a thief?” She asked, taking the helmet then sliding a pen drive into a small compartment on the side of her tight jacket.

At that, he smiled. “No. Then it’s righting a wrong.” 

“That’s what I thought,” she said as she straightened and smiled. “Let’s go get it right then, Robin Hood.”

“If I’m Robin Hood, then Lex is the Sheriff of Nottingham and you’re...” He paused, considering as he studied her.

“I am, one of your merry men?” She asked, cocking her head.

No, he thought. Much more than that. “Yeah, something like that,” he answered, chest tightening. “We should get going.” 

“We have,” she said as she looked at the clock on the wall. “Exactly fifteen minutes until his presentation is supposed to start. Knowing Lex, he will be late by ten minutes or so, so we should get there just in time.” Without another word, she started toward the elevator.

Oliver watched her go, holding his breath. Somehow, he felt like everything just changed.

* * * 

Less than an hour later, they were leaving the facility, completely unharmed. It had gone surprisingly smooth, there had only been a couple of guards outside and they were still under the effects of Oliver’s tranquilizer arrows by the time they left, with the information they had gone in for securely in Chloe’s coat pocket. 

As soon as Oliver was on the bike, she got up behind him and wrapped her arms around his waist tightly. “Go,” she said even as she looked over her shoulder.

Nodding, he did his best to ignore the feel of her pressed up tightly against him, wound around him and holding on to his waist. He focused on starting the bike and revving it to life.

Once he pulled away from the building, she relaxed and leaned into him a little more, lifting her head a little. “That was awesome,” she said loudly toward his ear, hoping he could hear her through his helmet.

He couldn’t help but grin at her words, nodding in agreement. “Yeah,” he said back just as loudly.

Smiling, she rested her head over his shoulder and watched the street as he zipped them through it. Sure, she’d helped Clark plenty before, but the fact that Oliver was human made her feel like a much bigger part in the mission.

Within a few moments, they’d arrived back at the clocktower and he parked his bike, pulling his helmet off and then climbing down. He held his hand out to Chloe wordlessly

She took his hand after removing her own helmet then smiled, nodding. “Thank you.”

He smiled as he helped her off the bike. “No problem.” He set their helmets down and led her to the elevator with his hand resting at the small of her back. “So you enjoyed the mission?” 

“Yeah,” she told him. “It had been a long time since I’d done something like this without Clark. It’s fun. Much more exciting.”

His expression brightened at that. “Stick with me, Watchtower, and I’ll introduce you to all kinds of new levels of excitement.” 

“I have no doubt,” she said, grinning at him as they walked toward the elevator. 

He couldn’t help grinning back at her as he pushed the button for his penthouse. “Excellent hacking, by the way.” 

“Excellent breaking and entering skills,” she told him as she leaned against the back wall of the elevator. “It almost looked like you’d done this before.”

“Like we both have.” He pulled his glasses off and winked at her, shoving his hood off next.

It took her a moment to figure out she was _staring_ at him, but when she did, she smiled and looked away. Between what they’d just done, his costume, and the wink, how could she ignore the fact that he was incredibly attractive?

“I have to say, we make a pretty good team.” 

“We do,” she agreed, standing up straight when the elevator came to a stop. “Can’t wait to see what we found so we can plan our next mission.”

“Me either,” he admitted, pulling open the gate and motioning her to go first.

She made her way in and went straight to his ‘Lex Laptop’ as she called it, booting it up then reaching to pull off her jacket. 

He unzipped his vest without really thinking about it, shrugging out of it and heading into his secret room where he stored his uniform and equipment. He returned a moment later in a pair of sweat pants, pulling a t-shirt on over his head. 

“It’s downloading the information,” she told him as she came out of the kitchen with a fresh cup of coffee.

“Excellent.” He raked a hand through his hair. “Let me know what you think of that kind,” he told her, nodding toward her cup. He’d ordered a bunch of new, exotic flavors to have on hand for her.

“Oh, is it new?” She asked, sniffing at the cup then pausing. “It smells amazing.”

He smiled. “Yeah, I ordered a few new kinds.” 

“This one smells like almonds and... something sweet?” She asked, then sipped on the hot liquid carefully. “Cinnamon?” 

Oliver nodded. “Sounds like one of the new ones,” he agreed. “What do you think?” 

“It’s really good,” she said, taking another sip. “There’s a spiciness to it, you should try it.”

He considered for a moment, then reached out and carefully took the mug from her, taking a small sip before handing it back. “Not bad.” 

“I know you’re not a fan, but it barely even tastes like coffee,” she said with a smile.

“Which is a plus for me.” He grinned at her.

“I know,” she repeated, wrinkling her nose at him. “I’ll teach you yet.”

Oliver laughed softly at her expression, draping his arm around her shoulders. “I’m not sure even _you_ can get me to like regular coffee.” 

“Well, I’ll start with the flavored stuff, once you’re addicted, you won’t care,” she said brightly as she leaned against his side.

He shook his head, eyes bright with amusement. “That’s cute.” 

“It works for drug dealers, it’s a proven tactic,” she teased, smiling.

“Oh, you’re taking lessons from drug dealers now?” He chuckled.

“I have no problem using their methods when the outcome is perfectly safe,” she pointed out.

“Uh huh. I see how it is.” There was teasing in his voice.

“Maybe I’ll even try some of your tea in exchange,” she told him, letting go of him as she moved to sit down in front of the computer.

He arched an eyebrow. “Now that just might be worth choking down the coffee,” he joked, moving to stand beside her.

“Choking it down, so insulting,” she mock sighed as she opened the files and started going through them.

He grinned, nudging her lightly with his elbow as she worked.

“There’s a lot here,” she admitted, quickly growing more serious as she ran a search for BCM, pausing when it returned three results. 

“That was fast,” he commented, cocking his head to the side.

“I just ran a quick search, now lets see if it’s actually anything helpful.” 

Nodding, he pursed his lips, scanning the computer screen and holding his breath. “Black Creek,” he murmured.

“Montana,” she finished, nodding. “BCM. That’s it.” 

“So he has expanded his research.” Oliver’s jaw tightened slightly.

Chloe quickly googled the location of the facility she had found in one of the documents and pulled it up on a map so they could look at it. “Seems incredibly isolated.”

“Makes sense. He doesn’t want to raise any suspicions about what he’s doing.” 

“Of course not,” she sighed. “Looks abandoned too. Though I’m sure only the outside of it will look this way.”

“I’m sure you’re right,” he agreed, glancing at her sideways.

Chewing on the inside of her lip, she lifted her head to look at him. “Maybe we should take a look?”

He met her eyes, holding her gaze. Then he nodded ever so slightly. “Maybe we should.” 

A grin spread on her face as she held his gaze. “Are you busy next weekend?”

Oliver just grinned back.

* * * 

The week had flown by, and by the time Chloe realized it, it was already Friday again and she and Oliver were flying out of Metropolis, headed to Montana. Lois and Clark both knew about their mission, and had made them promise to call for ‘Boy Scout’ if there was a problem, but Lois seemed oddly excited that the two of them were going alone. 

The flight was short, but the drive had been pretty long. It was almost winter already, only a week until Thanksgiving so it was freezing cold out, but surprisingly not snowing as they drove from the airport to a tiny town that was about twenty minutes from the Black Creek facility. 

“I think that’s it,” Chloe told Oliver, pointing at a the sign for the bed and breakfast she’d been able to find for them, since there were no hotels in the area. 

Oliver nodded, glancing at the sign and taking the exit off the interstate. “You any warmer?” he asked, reaching to adjust the thermostat once more.

“Yeah, I’m okay. But we will really need to work on layers tonight,” she said, arching her eyebrows.

He smiled faintly at that, nodding. “Definitely.” 

“Okay.” She looked down at the map on her laptop. “Take a right ahead.”

He steered the car into the right lane, turning when they reached the road. He pulled the vehicle into the driveway of the B&B moments later, arching his eyebrows. “Here we are.” 

“Easy to find, that’s a bonus,” she said with a grin. 

He grinned, too, simply from the look on her face. “Come on. I’ll grab our stuff.” He shut off the car, pocketed his keys, and opened the car door.

“I’ve got the stuff from in here,” she called packing the laptop, her purse and a bag with snacks they had gotten from a gas station on the way.

Nodding, he made his way around to the back of the car and popped the trunk, opening it up and pulling out the rest of their things. He followed her to the front door, smiling at her.

Chloe smiled back at him as they quickly made their way inside. The inn reminded her of the Kent farm, it was small, probably only had three or four rooms, but it was cozy looking. Of course the freezing cold and the warm fireplace probably helped with that.

“Can I help you?” an older lady behind the desk asked, smiling warmly at them.

“Yes,” Chloe said, smiling back at her. “We need two rooms for the weekend, preferably next to each other if you have them.”

She paused at that, frowning a little. “I’m afraid we only have one room left.” 

Oliver arched his eyebrows at that, glancing at Chloe sideways.

Chloe stilled and looked back at Oliver. Considering the size of the town she really didn’t think reservations would be necessary. She knew for a fact that this was the only place they could stay at and considering the look on the woman’s face, she didn’t want to give her any reason to question their behavior. “We just won’t tell my parents we spent the night in the same room before the wedding?” She said to Oliver, smiling sweetly at him.

His eyes widened at that but he quickly nodded in agreement. “Definitely not,” he said, surprised that his voice actually managed to sound normal.

She relaxed a little then smiled at the other woman. “We’ll take the room.”

The woman looked between them, an amused smile on her face. She held the check-in book out to Chloe. “If you’ll just leave your information, I’ll get your key, dear.” 

“Sure,” she said, glancing over at Oliver then taking a deep breath and quickly scribbling something, hoping he wouldn’t see it. 

Oliver smiled at her, unable to resist wrapping his arm around her waist. He kissed her temple and took the key when the lady held it out a moment later. 

“Thanks,” she told the lady, leaning against Oliver a little. 

“It’ll be the only room on the second floor, do you need help with your bags?” She asked. 

“We’re okay, thank you,” Chloe assured the woman. 

“Let me know if you need anything, Mrs. Green.”

It took everything in him not to smirk at _that_. His arm tightened around Chloe just a little, and he thanked the woman once more, before leading them toward the stairs, amusement in his eyes. “Mrs. Green?” he whispered.

“It was the first thing I could think of. Somehow I don’t think Tower or Arrow would’ve worked as well,” she told him, arching her eyebrows.

He grinned at that, hugging her affectionately to his side. “It works.” 

Chloe relaxed at that then smiled, shaking her head. “Glad you caught up quickly, although for a second there, the look on your face was priceless.”

“You caught me off guard,” he admitted.

“I know.” She smiled. “Still you did pretty well.”

“I’m a guy who can go with the flow,” he told her, grinning as he unlocked the door to their room. He pushed open the door, stepped inside and paused.

Chloe paused too when she saw the one, pretty narrow Queen bed in the room. It figured, really, considering. “Well.”

Oliver pursed his lips and set their bags down on the floor. “It looks comfy,” he remarked.

“Yeah, pretty much what you’d expect from a place like this,” she agreed.

He glanced over at her. “It’s not huge, but I think we’ll be all right.” 

“I’m sure we’ll be,” she agreed, relaxing as she smiled at him.

Oliver relaxed when she did, nodding and moving to sit down on the edge of the bed. “Well, we’ve got a few hours.” 

“Do you wanna get some rest?” She asked, sitting down too.

“I could nap if you’re sleepy,” he told her, arching his eyebrows. “It was a long drive.” 

“I think we both should,” she said sincerely. “Nap, eat something and get ready.”

“Sounds good to me. Then we’ll be fresh and ready for the mission.” 

“Exactly,” she agreed, reaching for her boots and pulling them off. “And tonight, we should probably get ready in the car.”

“You mean you don’t want to have to explain your green leather fetish?” he teased, nudging her lightly.

“Well, I don’t think she’d buy the whole ‘saving ourselves for marriage’ story if she found out about _that_ ,” she smirked.

He smirked, too. “I’m not sure she really bought that anyway.” 

“Why wouldn’t she have? I think it’s perfectly believable,” she said, looking as innocent as she could manage.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Because look at us. We’re both amazingly gorgeous blondes.” 

“With amazing self control, of course!” She told him, grinning.

“Which we obviously _do_ have...” He cocked an eyebrow at her.

She arched her eyebrows back at him and nodded even though she wasn’t quite sure what he meant by that. “So, see, no reason why she wouldn’t believe us.”

He smiled. “All right, let’s get comfortable,” he told her, rising to his feet.

“Yeah,” she agreed, reaching for her bag, which pretty much only had pajamas and the clothes she’d need for their mission. 

Oliver slipped his shoes off, placing them by the door and locking it while he was up. He shucked off his shirt, folding it neatly and setting it on the oak dresser.

She turned around, fully planning on saying something when she saw his completely naked, muscled back. All she could do was stare, her eyes wide. So much for self-control.

He turned to face her once more, his eyes meeting hers. She was staring at him. He held his breath for a moment, taking a couple steps toward her. “If you wanna change into something more comfortable, I’ll get the bed pulled down.” 

“No,” she said instantly, then shook her head and smiled a little. “I’ll just stay like this.” Because while sleeping in jeans was hardly comfortable, taking her clothes off just sounded like a bad idea at the moment.

Oliver cocked his head to the side. “That doesn’t look like it’ll be that comfortable.” 

“I’ll be fine, I’m under-caffeinated,” she said, smiling once again and taking off her coat.

“Okay...” He pursed his lips, wondering if he’d made her uncomfortable. But she’d been around him plenty of times when he had his shirt off and he’d never gotten the impression it bothered her. Of course now they were talking about sharing a bed, which was a little different. He moved over to his suitcase, picking it up and unzipping the main compartment, pulling out a tank top and tugging it on over his head. Normally he slept in just boxers, but he _knew_ that would make her uncomfortable.

She almost breathed in relief when she saw him putting on a shirt. Of course his arms were still exposed, but she had to pull herself together and get over it. It wasn’t the first time she’d seen him shirtless, anyway. Shaking her head, she walked over to the bed and tossed some of the pillows on the floor before pulling the covers down.

“Don’t like pillows?” he asked, chuckling as he watched her discard them on the floor.

“Not seven of them,” she said, glancing at him over her shoulder and smirking as she willed herself to relax. “That many pillows are only good as ammunition.” 

He smirked. “Ammunition, huh?” He casually picked up one of the pillows from the floor.

She squinted at him and reached for two pillows. “Yep.”

Oliver grinned, taking a couple steps toward her and arching his eyebrows as he lifted the pillow.

Chloe grinned back and without warning, tossed her smaller pillow at his face.

He blinked when he didn’t duck fast enough to miss it, and then he narrowed his eyes, swatting her with his pillow in the side.

She laughed at the look on his face but quickly grabbed the pillow she still had in both hands and started hitting his arm with it.

He reached his arm around her waist, tugging her close and smacking her with the pillow again.

Chloe slammed right against him but didn’t hesitate before lifting her pillow to his head.

Oliver chuckled as he let them fall onto the bed, tickling her in the side just to see if it had any effect.

She gasped and squirmed instantly. “Hardly fair in a pillow fight!” She accused. 

“Should’ve filled me in on the rules before socking me in the head with a pillow,” he responded with a laugh.

“You should know the basic rules,” she said as she reached for his hand.

Oliver grinned, reluctantly pulling his hand away from her ribs and plopping down on the bed beside her. “Okay, go to sleep. I’m tired,” he said lightly.

“You go to sleep, I’ll wait to make sure you don’t attack me,” she told him.

His eyes widened at that. “I would never!” 

“Too late, can’t trust you anymore.” Chloe hugged the pillow to her chest then adjusted on the bed.

His lower lip stuck out as he stared at her with wide eyes.

“Oh my god.” She couldn’t help but grin at the look on his face, even as she ignored the urge to lean closer.

“You know you can trust me.” Oliver leaned in a little closer.

“Because you can pout?” She asked, holding his gaze.

“Because you think I’m awesome.” His lips quirked upwards.

“Lies,” she said even though she smirked a little.

“Complete truth.” He grinned at her, arching his eyebrows.

“I don’t believe you,” she said, grinning back at him despite herself.

“You believe yourself though.” He shifted forward, kissing her forehead and then dropping down onto the bed, propping his head up on one hand.

Her heart skipped a beat when he leaned in and she closed her eyes when she realized he was kissing her _forehead_. Which was friendly and respectful and that was the relationship they had. “Okay, we really need to get some rest before we don’t have enough time,” Chloe said, looking over at him. She honestly had no clue what they’d been talking about just now, so she hoped that’d work.

Oliver offered her a lazy smile. “Agreed.” He shifted, sliding his body under the blankets and laying his head down on the pillow. 

Chloe watched him for a moment then took a deep breath and turned her back to him even though she was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be able to sleep now.

He gazed at her for a moment, then drew in a breath. “Night, Chloe,” he murmured.

“Night, Ollie,” she said quietly, hugging the pillow to her chest still and sighing deeply.


	11. Chapter 11

It was meant to be information-gathering only. But like most things, nothing ever seemed to turn out the way he planned. They’d come across cells full of prisoners, but most weren’t conscious. Most but not this one. “We’re gonna get you out of here,” he told the young man, even as he knelt in front of the cell, focusing on trying to pick the lock.

The boy was one of the few that didn’t seem completely out of it, everyone else who was actually conscious, seemed to be out anyway. Spacing out, probably drugged. “What’s your name?” Chloe asked, glancing as Oliver picked the lock. 

“Bart,” he said warily. “Why are you helping me?”

“It’s what we do,” Oliver answered, grinning when the lock popped. He yanked the cell door open, and immediately an alarm began to wail. “ _Shit._ ” 

Chloe’s eyes widened and she looked up then at Oliver. “We gotta get out!” She said quickly, turning to the boy. “Can you walk?” 

“Yeah. If you get this off me, I can do more than that.” He held his wrist out, revealing the metal bracelet cinched around it.

Without hesitating, she touched the bracelet. “Is there a key?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted, grimacing. 

Oliver studied the bracelet for a moment, even though every muscle in his body was telling him to run because they needed to get out of there. “I may be able to pick it.” He grabbed Bart’s wrist, holding onto it. 

“Don’t move,” Chloe told Bart as she helped Oliver hold the bracelet in place even as she looked over her shoulder, toward the door.

“Be my eyes,” he murmured to her, voice so quiet that his voice distorter didn’t pick it up.

Nodding, she looked at him for a second then let go of the bracelet and moved closer to the door. 

“How long have you been in here?” Oliver asked as he focused his attention on picking the lock on the bracelet.

“Hard to tell,” Bart said. “Days, more than a week, I think.”

“Do you know who’s behind all this?” He chewed the inside of his cheek, doing his best to ignore the sound of the screaming alarms.

Bart stared at him for a moment then nodded, his jaw tight. 

“I think someone’s coming,” Chloe said against her communicator rather than turning toward Oliver so she could keep her eyes on the door.

He tensed, but grinned when the bracelet clattered to the floor. He rose to his feet.

Grinning, Bart looked at him for a moment, then disappeared. 

Chloe gasped and turned around when she felt the wind, expecting to see Clark standing there, but finding the boy gone instead.

“...All right then.” Oliver blinked a couple of times, reaching out and grabbing her arm. “We gotta go.” 

“Yeah,” she agreed and pulled her arm from his grip, reaching for his hand instead. “But we’ll have to find another way out, they are coming from the way we came.” Even as she spoke, she pulled him out of the room and to their right, instead of their left. She should’ve studied the maps more closely because she wasn’t sure she was going to manage to get them out this way.

He held his breath and listened as the sound of footsteps moved past them. A _lot_ of footsteps. There was no way he could take out that many guards. He was acutely aware of Chloe’s presence beside him, and it dawned on him how much danger she was in because of him. Quietly, he pulled his crossbow from his back.

She could hear the footsteps now that the alarm was sounding behind them, and she could tell they weren’t coming from that direction only. There were also whispered ordered somewhere down the hallway and she really wished she had thought of bringing a weapon. With a quick glance at Oliver, her heart pounding against her chest, she took a deep breath. “Any other ideas?” She whispered against the communicator.

He nodded, glancing over at her. “Wrap your arms around my waist,” he whispered back.

Without questioning, she shifted even closer and did, looking up at him through her own sunglasses.

He wrapped an arm around her waist, as well, aiming his bow at the ceiling and firing an anchor line. He released the trigger, sending them shooting upwards quickly.

Chloe gasped quietly and tightened her arms around him, closing her eyes just for a second before looking up at him. They were literally hanging from the ceiling. It was better than where they had been seconds before, but still, they were hardly hidden from sight.

He held his breath, tightening his grip around her, as well. He glanced down, glad to see that none of the guards had thought to look _up_.

“One of the prisoners is gone,” one of the guards shouted.

“Find him!” Another ordered. 

She held her breath and hesitated before quickly wrapping an arm around his neck rather than around his back for a better grip on him.

He shifted his gaze to her for a moment, then looked around, noting that the drop to the top floor wasn’t far. He glanced at her again, then nodded in the direction they were going to have to go.

Swallowing hard, she looked at the second floor then nodded back as she tightened her hold on him, including wrapping a leg around his without even noticing she was doing it.

Oliver shifted his weight, swinging them just enough to get them where he needed them to be and releasing the line. He held onto her tightly as they dropped to the floor, glad when she fell on him instead of the other way around.

She gasped but did her best to remain quiet as they hit the floor, not taking a second longer before standing up. “You okay?” She whispered so quietly, he wouldn’t have heard her if it wasn’t for the communicators.

He started to respond when suddenly gunshots rang out. Instinctively, he rolled to put her under him, but the second he moved, she literally vanished from his arms. His heart leapt into his throat. 

Chloe found herself standing in the middle of the field a second later, her eyes wide as she looked around and saw the facility a good mile from where she now was. “Clark?”

“Not so much, Beautiful.” The young man from the facility grinned at her and then vanished.

“Get Oll-- Arrow!” She called, her heart racing when she realized he was gone. “Arrow, can you hear me?” She asked against her communicator.

A second later, he was sitting beside her on the ground, blinking rapidly, dazed. His stomach turned, and he shut his eyes, laying down and hoping he didn’t throw up.

She blinked and looked down at him, reaching down and cupping his face a second later. “Are you okay?”

“Stomach,” he mumbled, trying not to move.

Her eyes widened and without thinking twice, she unzipped his vest. “Were you shot?” She gasped, she thought she heard a gun going off just before she disappeared.

“No.” He kept his eyes shut as a wave of nausea washed over him.

“Think he’s gonna be sick, it does that to people,” a third voice spoke a moment later. 

Chloe stilled and looked up, seeing the boy they helped escape standing there. “Right,” she told him. “Thank you.”

He flashed her a grin, and then he was gone once more. 

Blinking, she shook her head and focused on Oliver once more. “Are you okay otherwise?”

He forced himself to take a deep breath. “Yeah. Traveling at warp speed sucks.” 

“Beats getting shot, or captured,” she told him, brushing her hand over his face. “Take deep breaths.”

He nodded slightly, and after a few moments, he sat up slowly. 

“Better?” she whispered, sitting back on her heels to give him some space.

Pursing his lips, he nodded again. “I think so.” 

“Okay,” she whispered but kept her eyes on him.

He grimaced, shrugging. “Too bad we didn’t get that kid’s name,” he said, trying to lighten the mood, even though his body was still tense.

“Bart,” she said, reminding him. “Of course that’s not much to go on, not unless he’s in one of our files.”

“No last name,” he pointed out, arching his eyebrows.

“We’ll figure it out,” she said before standing up. “We need to find the car, and we need to get away from here.”

Oliver nodded in agreement, rising to his feet as well. He had a feeling they were going to have a long walk.

* * *

The walk hadn’t been as long as they’d thought after all. Apparently the guy had noticed a car parked in the middle of nowhere before he dropped them off because they had only been a few feet away from the rental. 

They drove back to the inn as quickly as possible, changed in the car then rushed back to their room mostly in silence. At least from up there, they could be behind locked doors and have a good look around the area. “Pretty sure we weren’t followed,” Chloe said as she closed the curtains on one of the three windows the bedroom had.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” he admitted, arching his eyebrows and shaking his head a little.

“I think agreeing we’re very lucky we’ve made it back is a good place to start,” she told him, reaching to pull off her boots.

“It was a close call,” he murmured, moving a little closer to her. “Too close.” 

Nodding, she turned her attention on him and took a deep breath. “We’ll have to stick to the plan next time.”

He looked down, holding his breath. “I couldn’t leave him there,” he whispered.

“I know.” She reached out and rubbed his arm. “I wish we hadn’t left any of them in there,” she admitted. “But we will need help for a mission that big.”

He nodded slightly, meeting her eyes and holding her gaze, his own eyes darkening a little.

“Are you sure you’re not hurt?” She whispered, holding his gaze. The second she thought he might have been shot was the longest second of the night.

“I’m all right,” he said honestly, searching her eyes. “Are you sure _you’re_ all right?” 

“I am now,” Chloe said then took a deep breath. “You were pretty amazing in there.”

Oliver lifted his hand to her cheek. “I’m sorry things got hairy in there,” he murmured.

She frowned at that and shook her head, leaning into his touch. “It’s hardly your fault. Besides, I’m pretty sure if you hadn’t suspended us like you did, we wouldn’t be so lucky, so you saved my life.”

He wanted to point out that her life had been in danger because of him in the first place, but he knew her well enough to know that argument wouldn’t work well. He simply nodded instead, gaze dropping involuntarily to her mouth.

Unconsciously, she shifted closer to him, her gaze still in his eyes as she did. “I want you to train me.”

“Yeah?” he murmured, holding his breath.

“Yeah,” she whispered, reaching for his hand. “So next time we can help each other, and we can get those people out before Lex even knows what happened.” She smirked and took a deep breath.

Oliver nodded silently, sliding his fingers through hers, his other hand still lingering on her cheek as he held her gaze. “Okay,” he agreed.

“Good.” She smiled, squeezing his hand and watching him for a moment before leaning in and pressing a kiss to his cheek. It was hardly what she _wanted_ to do, but it was better than doing nothing at all.

He held his breath again as he felt her lips against his cheek, unable to stop himself from turning his head and kissing her mouth softly.

Chloe stilled, just for a second before she returned the kiss, even as she did, she shifted closer to him, tiptoeing as he heart beat faster against her chest.

A soft groan escaped him when she kissed him back and he brushed his nose lightly over hers before slowly deepening the kiss, his hand leaving her cheek to thread through her hair.

She let go of his hand and wrapped her arm around his neck for support as she lifted her other hand to cup his face.

He slid his other arm around her waist to pull her closer as they kissed, his heart beating quickly in his chest. He shifted, dropping a kiss against her jaw.

She shivered and let her head drop back, keeping her eyes closed as she reached to unzip his jacket. She knew she should be thinking this was a bad idea, but thinking just didn’t feel like a priority at the moment. Not when the two of them could have died in there. Not when she had been thinking about this constantly since they arrived at the inn earlier that day.

She wasn’t the only one who’d been thinking about this. There was very little thought left in his mind as he trailed kisses down her neck, enjoying her reaction. He slid a hand up and under the back of her shirt, stroking her skin there lightly and pulling back to look at her, his eyes dark with desire. 

When she opened her eyes, they were also darker than usual. It took a deep breath for her to be able to focus on him and even as she did, she pushed his jacket out of the way.

With that simple action, she’d acknowledged he wasn’t alone in his desire, so without further hesitation, he pushed her jacket off, as well, letting it pool on the floor with his. Then, keeping his eyes on her, he pulled his shirt off, discarding it, as well. 

Chloe held her breath as he did, lifting her hands to his chest before she could stop herself. She’d expect a couple of scars here and there from what he did, but there weren’t any. Just his firm, smooth and perfect skin. 

Oliver smiled at her, arching his eyebrows as he shifted closer and leaned down, dipping his head to kiss her again.

She’d been almost disappointed when the kiss forced her to pull her attention away from his chest but a second later, she kissed him back deeply once again. His mouth was just as interesting, apparently. 

He reached for the hem of her shirt, slowly sliding it upwards and then pulling away to look at her once more, silently asking for permission.

Chloe took a deep breath and looked up at him for a moment before reaching for her shirt and pulling it off. 

He reached out, caressing her shoulder lightly as he slid the strap of her bra down her arm a little. “Your skin is so soft,” he murmured, dropping a kiss to her collarbone.

She smiled a little and shivered again as she ran her hands down his back and over to his sides.

Oliver shivered involuntarily, as well, licking his lips and then kissing her shoulder tenderly, sliding his hand down her back, enjoying the feel of her skin beneath his fingertips. 

With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and turned her head to his neck, brushing her nose against his skin before pressing a kiss to it.

He swallowed hard, tangling one hand in her hair again. The feel of her lips against his own skin was almost overwhelming. He unhooked the clasp of her bra with his free hand, kissing her jaw and then nuzzling his nose against her neck.

She moved her hands over his chest again as she turned her head and ran her lips over his jaw before pulling back enough to force him to look at her.

He met her eyes without hesitation, heart beating hard in his chest. Did she want to stop?

Chloe smirked a little at him then reached for the back of his neck and kissed him deeply. 

He couldn’t help but smile against her mouth. “Worried me there for a minute,” he confessed between kisses, reaching up and sliding her bra off, adding it to the growing pile of clothes on the floor.

She paused at that and pulled away again to look at him. “Why?”

“I thought maybe you wanted to stop.” He arched his eyebrows.

Holding her breath, she shook her head. “I don’t start things I don’t mean to finish,” she said, cocking her head at that. “Do you?”

A smile tugged at his mouth, and he shook his head, though he pulled away to look at her, sucking in a breath. “Wow,” he murmured, gaze traveling over her body.

Chloe paused at the look on his face and shifted closer to him. She was incredibly comfortable with him, they touched and hugged all the time, but the intimacy of him staring at her like that was much more real. 

“You’re gorgeous,” he whispered, lifting his hand to her cheek and tilting her face up to look at him. 

“So are you,” she said sincerely as she held his gaze and lifted her hands to his sides again.

He smiled softly at her, leaning in and brushing his nose against hers. “What do you say we make ourselves more comfortable?” He nodded toward the bed.

“I guess, since we have to share it anyway,” she teased, grinning a little and pressing her lips to his again before hooking her fingers on his pants and pulling him with her as she stepped back toward the bed.

Oliver chuckled softly, following her to the bed, arms winding around her waist. “Well if we must,” he teased back, leaning in and stealing a quick kiss.

She sat back on the bed then scooted higher on it, keeping her eyes on his as she pulled him to her.

He slid his body over hers, dipping his head and kissing a path down the valley between her breasts, supporting his weight on his arms.

With a deep breath, she shivered and cocked her head down to watch him as she ran her fingers through his hair.

He pressed kisses against each of her breasts before sliding his mouth over a nipple, caressing it with his lips and tongue.

Chloe moaned instantly, shivering and closing her eyes as she held onto his hair. It had been a long time but it felt even longer now.

He felt her fingers tightening in his hair, and the soft moans she was making were already driving him crazy. He’d barely touched her and she was so responsive. He shifted his weight, gently rolling his thumb lightly over her other nipple, looking up to watch her face.

She made a quiet noise and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes and lifted her head to look at him again, they were darker than before. Licking her lips, she cupped his face in her hands and lifted her body enough to kiss him again, hungrily this time.

Oliver slid his arms beneath her, rolling them so she was laying atop him as they kissed, his hands stroking her back and then traveling down to cup her ass.

With her elbows resting on either side of his head, she leaned down on him without breaking the kiss even as she pressed her hips against his.

He groaned, nipping lightly at her bottom lip as he thrust his hips against hers instinctively. “We better finish undressing,” he mumbled, soothing her lip with his tongue gently.

“Read my mind,” she agreed, wrapping her lips around his bottom one and sucking it into her mouth as she reached between them to undo his pants.

He shifted, holding onto her hips so she didn’t lose her balance, lifting his head up to follow her.

A moment later, she gave up and pushed herself to a sitting position before she could successfully undo his pants. As soon as she did, she took a deep breath and started to push them down.

He watched her, his eyes dark and lingering on her body as she undressed him. He slid his hands to her waist, undoing the button and zipper on her pants, as well.

Chloe looked at him for a moment then pulled away, standing by the bed as she pulled his pants off the rest of the way before pushing her own down as well.

Oliver smiled at her as he held his arms out to her once more, enjoying the sensation of her bare skin against his. He pressed a kiss against her cheek, then the corner of her mouth.

She turned her head and kissed him again, sliding her hands over his shoulders and arms as she laid on top of him once more.

He returned the kiss, letting his eyes drift shut for a moment and then opening them once more as he sat up, holding her onto his lap. “Protection,” he murmured at the uncertainty on her face. 

Chloe blinked a few times and shook her head. “Don’t have any,” she breathed, her eyes widening.

“I do,” he told her with a small smile, kissing her temple and gently setting her down on the bed. He moved to grab his pants, picking up his wallet and pulling out a foil package.

She relaxed as she watched him come back toward her. Kneeling on the bed, she reached for the package before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him again.

He let her have the packet without argument, winding his arms around her waist again and pulling her against him. 

As she moved closer, she shifted her hands down his back and slid them inside his boxers, pushing them down. She didn’t know what this meant, but she didn’t care at the moment. She was just starting to get impatient because she wanted more.

He stepped out of his boxers, laying her back on the bed and quickly removing her underwear as well, chewing the inside of his cheek as he rested his hands lightly on her thighs. “Do you have a favorite position?” he asked, leaning down and kissing her knee.

Chloe blinked at the question, surprised by it for a moment before shaking her head. It was most definitely not a question she’d ever been asked before. “I think we can see how it goes,” she said, holding her breath as she stared at him for a moment then remembering the condom that was still in her hand and ripping the package open.

He could tell that the question had caught her off guard, which reinforced what he thought to be the case: that Jimmy Olsen was a _moron_. Nodding, he watched her as she plucked the condom from the package. He shifted closer. “Whatcha gonna do with that?” he teased, breath warm against her ear.

She shivered and pulled away a little as she reached down and wrapped her fingers lightly around him. “Use it, if you stop distracting me,” she teased back.

He sucked in a breath when she touched him. “Pretty much under your spell at this point, Beautiful,” he murmured.

With a deep breath, she focused on him, sliding down the condom carefully before nodding a little as she held his gaze once again. “Feel free to distract me now.”

“I intend to,” he told her, laying her back on the bed and covering her body with his own once more. “Over and over and over again.” He kissed her collarbone as he slid a hand down to cup her center.

She shuddered at the touch and bent her knees up on either side of him as she rubbed her hands over his back. “Get started, then,” she whispered, pressing her hips against his hand.

He grinned at her reaction, arching his eyebrows. “So bossy, Tower,” he whispered back, gently rubbing his finger over her most sensitive spot.

Chloe moaned at that and slid her hands down his back, trying to pull him closer. “Such a tease, Arrow,” she managed. 

“Oh, I plan on following through,” he assured her, dropping a kiss to her neck and then pulling away from her, settling himself between her legs. He shifted so that her legs were over his shoulders. 

She adjusted a little on the bed and took a deep breath as she held onto his arms and held his gaze, nodding.

Oliver met her eyes, nodding, too, and then sliding his tongue over her opening gently. He eased a finger into her, trying to better prepare her for their joining.

Chloe moaned a second later, closing her eyes at the feel of his warm tongue against her. She’d known anything with him would feel good, she knew he had a lot of experience, but she didn’t expect so little to feel so amazing.

He smiled, gently resting a hand on her thigh as he slid a second finger inside her, stretching her carefully as his tongue flickered over her clit, first in slow circles, then more quickly.

She let her hands drop to the covers and wrapped her fingers tightly around them as she dug her heels against his back, trying to lift her hips toward his hand and mouth.

“Easy,” he murmured against her skin. “Let me do the work here.” He thrust his fingers into her and withdrew them slowly, repeating his actions.

“Faster,” she told him, shuddering as she willed herself to relax.

Oliver chuckled softly and slid closer, sucking the small bud into his mouth as he thrust a third finger inside of her.

Shuddering, she arched her back toward him a little and moaned loudly, already unbelievably close.

He slid his hand up under her back to help support her, moving his fingers faster and suckling a little harder, enjoying her shudders.

Chloe moaned with each thrust and a moment later, without warning, she cried out and shuddered hard as her orgasm hit, closing her eyes tightly as her back arched and she pulled on the sheets.

Oliver kissed his way up her body slowly even as his fingers continued moving inside of her, albeit slower, helping her ride out the pleasure. 

She shivered, relaxing a moment later as she let her legs drop to his sides and took a deep breath, opening her eyes.

He smiled down at her, arching his eyebrows. “Better?” he murmured.

“No,” she breathed, grinning up at him as she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his back this time.

He smirked at that, sliding his fingers out of her and positioning himself at her entrance, pushing inside of her slowly. “We’ll see if I can fix that.” 

“You can,” she told him, holding his gaze and keeping still as he moved inside of her.

Oliver kept his eyes on her as he eased into her slowly, knowing it had been awhile for her. For him, too. His jaw tightened ever-so-slightly and he held his breath, stilling inside of her after a moment to allow her to adjust. “You’re so tight,” he whispered, shutting his eyes.

She took a deep breath, willing herself to relax and nodding a little. “Move,” she whispered to him, cupping the back of his neck and turning her head to press her lips to his jaw. 

“Am I hurting you?” he asked even as he slowly withdrew from her.

“It’ll be okay in a second,” she told him, nodding. 

He chewed the inside of his cheek, dropping his mouth to press a kiss to her throat as he slowly eased back into her once more, feeling her tense even as he knew she tried not to. He slid a hand down between their bodies, sliding his finger over her once more as he watched her face.

Chloe moaned quietly, shuddering and taking a deep breath. “Okay,” she breathed, opening her eyes and looking over at him. He was definitely bigger than she was used to.

“You sure?” he murmured, brushing his nose over hers.

“Yeah,” she said quietly, brushing her lips against his and slowly lifting her hips toward him.

“Okay.” He kissed her softly as they began to move together, his hand dropping to her hip to help guide her movements.

With a deep breath, she lifted her legs higher around his back and kissed him back, her body finally adjusting more to him so that she wasn’t nearly as uncomfortable anymore.

Her movement forced him deeper within her and he groaned, dropping his forehead against her chest. He thrust into her again, pulling away enough that he could grip onto her legs, hooking them beneath his arms and gazing down at her, beads of sweat breaking out on his forehead.

Chloe moaned loudly as her hips angled higher and he slid in deeper, this time, of pure pleasure. Her back arched as she did her best to keep her eyes on him.

“You feel incredible,” he told her as he thrust into her again, jaw tightening as he tried to maintain his self-control.

“So do you,” she told him, sliding a hand behind his neck and kissing him deeply even as they moved together, quickening the pace.

Without warning, he slid his arms beneath her back, propelling them into a sitting position and deepening the kiss as he ground against her.

She kissed him for a moment, then moaned loudly against his lips as she pressed her hips against his as close as she could.

Oliver slid his hand between them, stroking her quickly as he thrust up into her. He couldn’t help but notice how perfectly her body fit with his, like this was where they were supposed to wind up all along.

Her back arched even more with a shudder and she wrapped her arms around his back, closing her eyes and moving against him, slamming her hips to him and his hand.

He pressed his mouth against her ear as he met her halfway.

All it took were a couple more thrusts and strokes and she came undone yet again, her body shuddering hard and clinging to him as she moaned loudly.

Oliver laid her down once more, thrusting into her a couple more times as his own orgasm hit, his breathing coming in gasps as he buried his face in her throat.

She kept her legs and arms around him, holding him to her even as their bodies started to calm down. Her brain could barely process what had happened, but she knew she didn’t want him going anywhere anytime soon.

He blew out a shaky breath, shifting slowly so they were lying on their sides, and pulling her closer to him, kissing her forehead as his eyes drifted shut. “Incredible.” 

“You are,” she muttered, snuggling closer to him and sighing deeply.

He smiled a little, stroking her hair. “We are,” he corrected her.

“Agreed.” She smiled a little, looking up at him. “Mission turned out really well,” she murmured.

“Even better than expected,” he agreed, meeting her eyes.

“You mean you weren’t expecting this?” She teased, grinning a little.

“Expecting, no. I won’t tell you the thought hadn’t crossed my mind.” He arched his eyebrows, grinning, too.

“And here I thought you planned it all...” she told him.

He smiled a bit more, kissing her forehead as he held her. “Get some rest,” he murmured, letting his eyes drift shut.

She turned her head against his neck and sighed deeply, her body completely exhausted. “You too.”

“Will do,” he promised, laying his head down on the pillow.

Chloe turned to look at him then took a deep breath and closed her eyes, relaxing and falling asleep almost immediately. 

He looked at her once more, falling asleep moments later with a smile on his face.


	12. Chapter 12

When Chloe woke up again, it was because the sun was shining bright right on her face. Squinting, she frowned and turned her back toward it, pausing only when she realized not only was it hard to move, but also, she had barely any space to move in.

Oliver felt her move and groaned, burying his face against her neck, his arm tightening around her waist involuntarily.

Chloe frowned at that and managed to turn her face, squinting. “Ollie?”

“Hmm?” He kissed the back of her neck.

Shivering, she took a deep breath and relaxed a little. It wasn’t unusual for them to fall asleep together on the couch and it took her a moment to realize this _wasn’t_ his couch and the fact that she could feel his very naked body pressed against hers. That’s when she remembered it. 

“Morning already?” he murmured, his thumb moving lightly over her stomach.

“Yeah,” she muttered, taking a deep breath and rubbing her hand over her face. She really needed this not to be awkward, because in the past few weeks, he had become one of her best friends and she really didn’t want to lose that.

He mumbled something unintelligible, letting his eyes drift shut once more.

“Ollie,” she called when she saw he had closed his eyes again.

“‘m awake,” he said, groggy.

With a deep breath, she moved his arm from around her, hoping he would stay with his eyes shut.

“Where you going?” he complained, frowning.

“Bathroom,” she lied. She wanted to find clothes and close the blinds.

He sighed, reluctantly letting her go. “Okay.” 

With a soft sigh, she got up and quickly made her way into the small bathroom before closing the door behind herself. She had to figure out what to do before anything else.

After a few minutes, when she hadn’t returned, Oliver sat up in bed, rubbing his hands over his face and frowning. He wrapped the sheet around his waist and moved toward the bathroom door. “Chloe? You okay?” There was a hint of worry in his voice as he knocked.

She had been mostly trying to figure out how to get to her clothes without walking around naked. “Hm, yeah?”

“Are you sure? You’re not sick, are you?” He chewed the inside of his cheek, brows furrowed

“No, I’m fine...” she told him then took a deep breath. “Could you find me clothes?”

Oliver paused, pursing his lips and moving to pick up her things from the floor. He carefully sorted his clothes from hers, carrying hers to the door. “Here.” 

She opened the door a moment later and looked up at him. “Thank you.”

“You sure you’re okay?” he asked, meeting her eyes worriedly.

“I was trying to make things not awkward but, I guess I’m not doing a great job at that,” she said, pulling her clothes from him and sighing softly.

He cocked his head to the side. “Why would things be awkward?” He arched his eyebrows.

Chloe gave him a look at that. 

A smile quirked his lips. “It doesn’t _have_ to be awkward.” 

“Lets put on some clothes and _then_ we’ll have this conversation,” she said, arching her eyebrows at him and smirking a little.

“I don’t know...I kinda like the view without the clothes,” he teased, mischievousness making his eyes twinkle.

“Okay,” she said quickly when she realized she was smiling at him. “Clothes,” she repeated, closing the door then shaking her head. Maybe he was right, it didn’t _have_ to be awkward.

He shook his head, too, reluctantly moving over to pick up his own clothes, and sliding his boxers on. 

She wore her underwear and top. She was going to wear her jeans but she decided against it. It was uncomfortably tight, besides, she figured this would be a way to show him she wasn’t completely uncomfortable anymore. With a deep breath, she pulled the door open and stepped back into the bedroom.

Oliver turned around, wearing only his boxers and an undershirt. He couldn’t help but grin at her, eyes traveling over her figure as he moved toward her. “Better?” 

“Much,” she said, dropping her pants over her bag before moving to sit on the bed.

He watched her, nodding, then moving to sit down beside her. “Good.” 

She took a deep breath and looked up at him, arching her eyebrows. 

He reached out, resting his hand lightly on her back as he met her eyes. “I don’t regret last night,” he said softly.

“I don’t _regret_ either,” she told him then shook her head. “But you’ve become one of my best friends, Ollie. The last thing I want is for us to lose that.”

“We don’t have to,” Oliver said sincerely, shaking his head, too.

“We _can’t_ ,” she corrected him, reaching for his hand. “I think we both need this too much.”

“I agree,” he said, threading his fingers through hers and lifting her hand to his mouth, kissing her knuckles lightly. “But maybe things can evolve.” 

Chloe pursed her lips together and took a deep breath. “I don’t know if I’m ready for that,” she admitted in a whisper. 

Oliver’s chest tightened at that and he was quiet for a moment. “What if...” He hesitated.

Holding her breath, she squeezed his hand tightly in hers then arched her eyebrows a little, willing him to continue.

“Well, what if we’re best friends who occasionally see each other naked?” He smiled a little, arching his eyebrows, too. 

“Oh,” she said quietly, surprised. “Considering last night, I think it’d be a big mistake to say no to that.”

He gave her hand a light squeeze, reaching up with his other hand and tucking some hair behind her ear. “We’re definitely compatible in that department, too,” he said.

Nodding slightly, she considered him for a moment. “And... no messy relationship stuff, right?” She asked.

He cocked his head to the side. “I think we should make sure that our friendship is always first and foremost.” 

“Good,” she agreed, smiling as she relaxed. “Because the last thing I want is for us to hate each other like we do our exes.”

“I don’t think it’s possible that I could ever hate you, but I agree. So our friendship comes first, and...stuff like last night is just...something else we can do together when we feel like it.” He gazed at her, smiling softly. 

“Exactly,” she agreed, relaxing a little and nodding. “Because I think ignoring last night is _not_ going to work,” she teased.

He smirked. “Agreed. And...I’m not interested in getting involved with anyone else, so I can tell you that I’m clean now, and you’re going to be the only one I’m with in that way unless something big changes.” And by that, he meant if she decided she hated him.

Arching an eyebrow, she considered that for a moment then nodded. “Same here,” she told him. She’d been so grossed out by the idea that Jimmy had been cheating on her, getting tested was one of the first things she’d done after talking to her lawyer. 

He grinned at her. “Great.” 

“Okay,” she said, squeezing his hand again. “Let’s eat something and then we should probably head back.”

He nodded, too. “And then we can start going over the information you hacked last night, and try to figure out who Bart is.” 

“Hopefully we’ll be able to track him down,” she agreed, standing up. “And then we can bring him into our team.”

Oliver rose to his feet, too, relieved that they were on the same page--in more ways than one.

* * *

Chloe had ended up going back to the farm on Saturday after they made it back to Metropolis, but had promised Oliver she’d go over on Sunday so they could research. 

It was a little after ten when she made her way out of the coffee shop near the Clocktower and up to the top floor, pressing in the code for the elevator as she shifted the bagels, coffee and tea in her hands, then pushing the gate out of the way with her foot. “Ollie?” She called. 

“Come on in,” he called from the kitchen. 

“I brought breakfast,” she said as she made her way to the kitchen. “And it started snowing.”

“Again?” He arched his eyebrows, turning to face her. He couldn’t help but smile at her. “Thanks.” 

“That’s your chai latte,” she said, nodding at the cup closest to him.

He grinned brightly at that. “Awesome.” He picked it up and took a drink.

“And I got you a multi-grain bagel, I wasn’t sure what kind you like and that’s the most healthy sounding one,” she told him with a smirk as she set everything down on the table.

“It’s like you know me or something,” he responded with a smirk, pulling her chair out for her and sitting down across from her.

“I’m a good guesser,” she teased, sitting down and pulling their bagels out of the paper bag.

“Clearly.” He winked at her and took another drink, leaning back in his chair.

“I’m surprised you haven’t eaten,” she admitted, arching her eyebrows. “When did you wake up?”

“A few hours ago,” he said with a shrug. “I had juice. I would’ve cooked, but I know you usually don’t eat breakfast.” 

“I know, but you also wake up at like, six, so this is pretty much dinner for you,” she smirked.

He smirked back, taking a bite of the bagel she’d gotten for him. “Very cute.” 

“I know,” she said as she sipped on her latte.

“How’s the farm?” he asked.

“Muddy.” She made a face and shook her head. “I’m surprised I managed to drive out to the road this morning without having to ask Clark to pick up my car and set it out there for me.”

He chuckled. “Don’t worry. It’ll be all frozen over in no time.” 

“That’s better,” she admitted. “Usually. I just don’t like rain and mud.” 

“I’m a sun kind of guy myself. Maybe a little wind. Makes surfing much easier.” 

“You actually surf?” She asked, surprised as she took a bite of her bagel.

“Not as much as I’d like to, but yeah. I’m not half bad.” 

“It’s definitely an interesting mental picture,” she said with a smirk as she arched her eyebrows.

Oliver cocked his head to the side. “Is it?” 

“Yep,” she told him with a grin. At least with this arrangement of theirs, she felt comfortable enough to let him know how attractive she thought he was.

He grinned, too. “I could teach you, you know. Just you, me, a surfboard and the waves.” 

“On your own private beach?” She asked, cocking her head.

He nodded at that, taking a drink of his tea. “Interested?” 

“Most definitely,” she agreed, taking another bite of her bagel. “Speaking of interested, are you still coming for Thanksgiving?”

“Absolutely,” he confirmed, taking another bite of his, as well. “I’m even going to bring food.” 

“Awesome,” she said with a grin. “What are you making?”

“Definitely green bean casserole.” When she smirked, he gave her a look. “I’m open for other suggestions, though. Anything specific you’re hoping for that Clark doesn’t make?” 

“Well, Mrs. Kent will be there, she does most of the cooking.” She paused for a moment as she considered. “Maybe a dessert other than apple and pumpkin pie?”

He studied her, nodding. “Yeah. Any favorites?” 

“Brownies? Or, triple chocolate cookies? Chocolate anything, really.” She arched her eyebrows.

He smirked, taking another bite of the bagel. “I’ll see what I can come up with.” 

“Look forward to it.” She grinned. “Anyway, have you looked into the files?”

“Yeah. Not so much luck with finding our friendly speedster, though,” he admitted, sighing.

Chloe made a face and nodded a little. “I guess we’ll have to keep looking. I mean, between him and Clark, we could get in and out of any place without being seen.”

He pursed his lips. “Exactly.” He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. “QI is working on some new software the may be useful...” 

“Oh yeah?” She set her coffee down and sat up. “Tell me more.”

“It’s still being worked on, but it’s facial recognition software.” He leaned forward, arching his eyebrows.

“Awesome,” she said, watching him. “And I assume I can have access to an early working version of it as soon as it’s available?”

“Funny that you ask that.” He grinned suddenly, rising to his feet. “It’s possible that I have a copy of the prototype right out there at my computer.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me about this before?” She asked, standing up quickly too. “I’d have skipped breakfast.”

“Because you need to eat breakfast,” he answered with a smirk.

“I have coffee,” she pointed out, shaking her head. “Show me.”

“So bossy,” he teased, leading her over to the computer and picking up the small flash drive. He held it out to her.

She took the flash drive without hesitation and slid it on the slot as soon as the computer had booted up. “Let’s see how this works.”

“I’m sure you’ll have it figured out in about two seconds,” he said, sitting down beside her.

“We’ll see.” She set her coffee down and took her seat. After a series of clicks and some typing, she uploaded a webcam picture of herself she had just taken and ran the search. “Thirty seconds to search the database? Not bad.”

He grinned, setting his feet up on the desk. “I have awesome people.” 

She watched the screen and grinned when her name and social number popped up on the screen along with her driver’s license. “Not bad. A little outdated since I’ve changed my address back to Smallville, but close enough.”

He nodded. “Yeah, they’re working on getting updates to it,” he told her. “So hopefully it’ll be faster and even more accurate soon.” 

“Well, with the name and social, we can find anyone by hacking into the government database anyway, so it’s no big deal,” she told him. “Now, what we need is footage of the Black Creek facility so we can find the speedster’s identity and track him down. That will take a while.”

Oliver pursed his lips, putting his arms behind his head and looking up at the ceiling. “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. Think Clark might be game for running in and grabbing one of the cameras?” 

“Good question, he was pretty angry we didn’t call for him when I told them what happened,” she admitted. “But he was a lot angrier when I told him what we saw, so I think he’d be glad to help.”

He grimaced a little, glancing at her. “I’ll talk to him.” 

“We can just have a meeting with them?” She suggested.

“Yeah, that works.” He nodded, arching his eyebrows.

“But you don’t have to worry about explaining what happened during the mission,” she assured him, smiling.

He blinked, leaning forward a little. “Oh, good. Cause I’m not sure how well Boy Scout would take that news.” 

“We are still talking about what happened at the facility, right? Because if we are, he already knows. Kinda.”

“Oh.” He paused. “No, I was talking about the more...personal turn of events that happened during the mission.” 

“Right,” she said then grinned a little before shaking her head. “Nothing to tell as far as I know.”

He grinned back at her. “Good. I don’t really want him to twist me into a pretzel.” 

“He probably would,” she agreed, leaning back against her chair. “And Lois just might help him.”

He winced at that, shriveling back in his chair. “Right.” 

“It’s okay.” She leaned in closer and held his gaze, smirking. “Your secret is safe with me.”

“It’s probably screwed up that I’m more afraid of your cousin than I am the guy who could _literally_ break me in half with his pinky, isn’t it?” 

“No, not really,” she said, leaning back on her chair once more. “I’d be more afraid of her, too.”

His lips quirked upwards in a smile. “See, I’m a smart guy.” 

“You are, you also know Lois well.” She reached for her coffee and sipped on it again then focused on the computer once more. 

He gazed at her, smiling softly. “So what do you think? Get Clark to grab the camera and we’ll have this figured out in no time.” 

“Yeah, let’s do that. We can call and ask if they wanna meet for lunch? Or you can just drive back with me.”

“Either way. I’m up for a drive if you are.” 

“Sure,” she agreed, smiling. “Clark can drop you off later, so we can just take my car, but let’s bring this,” she said as she reached for the laptop and powered it off.

He nodded. “Good idea.” He rose to his feet.

“Need anything else before we leave?” She asked as she stood up, too.

“My wallet,” he told her, winking at her and heading down the hall toward his bedroom.

Chloe took a deep breath and watched him go. Now, if she could stop thinking about kissing him and everything else with him, this arrangement of theirs would be perfect.


	13. Chapter 13

Oliver was running late, which didn’t make him very happy. There had been significant fog in California that morning and it had to clear before his pilot could fly him back to Kansas, which had delayed him by several hours. He’d barely had time to make cookies, a green bean casserole and drive to Smallville in time for dinner. He smoothed down his black shirt as he made his way toward the front door, carrying the food and a bottle of wine. It had been several days since he’d last seen Chloe. 

Five to be exact. And though they’d talked every night he was in Star City, a couple of times even video-chatting on their laptops, it still wasn’t the same thing. 

He reached out, ringing the doorbell and holding his breath.

It only took a moment before the door opened, Clark paused when he saw Oliver and arched his eyebrows. “Hey, you made it!” He greeted with a smile as he stepped to the side.

“Yeah, my flight was delayed,” he explained. “Fog over California.” He stepped inside. “Smells good.” 

“It’s almost ready,” Clark said as he reached for one of the dishes Oliver was carrying. “Oliver is here,” he called. 

He arched his eyebrows, letting Clark take the casserole from him. “Thanks.” 

“He is?” Chloe asked as she appeared from the kitchen, eyes widening a little when she saw him, her heart skipping a beat. She hadn’t seen him in almost a week and it felt like _forever_.

Oliver’s eyes met hers and he held his breath, then smiled. “Hey. Sorry I’m late.” He arched his eyebrows.

She glanced at Clark as he walked into the kitchen then walked over to Oliver, smiling brightly. “I’m glad you made it at all, why didn’t you call me to tell you landed?”

“Maybe I wanted to surprise you...guys,” he added quickly, glancing toward the kitchen. He could barely resist the urge to lean down and kiss her.

“It’s a good surprise,” she told him, looking at him for a moment before wrapping her arms around him. Hardly what she wanted to do, but she knew it was bad enough that Clark could probably hear how fast her heart was beating. 

He hugged her back instantly, resting his chin atop her head. “I take it you missed me,” he teased, rubbing her back.

“You were gone?” She asked, not letting go of him for a moment before loosening her hold on him slightly and lifting her head.

He grinned at that, looking down at her and meeting her eyes once more. “Very funny,” he said lightly.

She couldn’t stop herself from smiling brightly at him. “Food is almost ready,” she said. “Mrs. Kent didn’t let us help at all.”

“Oh, thank God.” He smirked at her.

“Hey.” She poked him at the side. “Speaking of, what did you bring me?”

His eyes widened a little. “What makes you think I brought you something?” he teased.

“You were _supposed_ to,” she reminded him.

“And I don’t disappoint.” He held out the container of chocolate chip cookies.

She pulled the cover off it and grinned, shaking her head. “Mostly, I _was_ teasing. I can’t believe you actually had time to cook.”

“It’s why I’m late,” he admitted. “And I told you I would bring you chocolate.” 

“You could have just picked up a chocolate bar,” she said with a grin. “But I’ll take these since you took the time to bake.” She stopped herself from adding a ‘for me’ even as she took the container from him.

He smiled at her, winking and resting his hand at the small of her back as he followed her into the kitchen. “Everything smells wonderful,” he told Mrs. Kent.

“Thank you,” she told him as she closed the oven and turned toward him with a smile. “Glad you were able to join us.”

“Thank you for having me again this year,” he said sincerely. “How’s DC, Senator?” 

“It’s busy,” she told him. “But it’s good to be able to make a difference.” 

“We’re all glad it’s you making a difference, mom,” Clark told her. 

“Amen to that,” Oliver said quietly, glancing sideways at Chloe and arching his eyebrows.

“Seriously,” Lois agreed as she entered the room. “Table is set,” she announced.

Chloe smiled a little at Oliver and nodded a little. “Agreed.”

He smiled, too, barely hearing Lois’s comment.

“We can probably pull the turkey out, I’m just heating up Oliver’s casserole,” Martha told Clark.

“You brought food?” Lois asked, stopping next to Oliver.

“Just a casserole and some cookies,” he told Lois, offering her a smile. “Happy Thanksgiving.” 

Martha smiled, looking between them and then turning back to the stove.

“Happy Thanksgiving,” she said, giving him a sideways hug. “Hope you don’t plan on leaving for the rest of the weekend,” she warned. 

Chloe paused at that and arched her eyebrows, focusing on Oliver. 

He blinked a couple of times. “Meaning...?” he asked uncertainly.

Lois smiled brightly at him then walked away, picking up the salad. “I’m starving,” she said as she took it to the dining room, walking after Clark who was carrying the turkey.

He glanced at Chloe. “What did she mean by that?” He shook his head.

“I have no idea,” Chloe admitted, shaking her head. 

“I think she wants you to spend the holiday weekend here, with us,” Martha told him, then turned to Chloe and handed her the mashed potatoes. “These are ready, too.”

“Oh.” He chewed the inside of his cheek. “Well, I don’t have any other plans, but...I don’t want to be an imposition, either.”

“You won’t be,” Martha assured him, smiling then turning back toward the stove. “It’s nice having the house full.” 

Chloe smiled at Oliver and nodded. “Kind of like when we were in high school,” she agreed before walking away to set the mashed potatoes on the table, too.

Not for the first time, he wondered what it would have been like to grow up with Chloe and Clark and Lois. To be part of these holidays all along. He followed Chloe toward the dining room, but paused before he left the kitchen, looking at Mrs. Kent. “Thank you again. I really appreciate it.” 

Martha turned toward him again and smiled, shaking her head. “Consider yourself part of the family,” she told him. “We do.”

He smiled softly, ducking his head and nodding. “Likewise,” he said quietly.

* * *

Food had been amazing, Chloe was pretty sure she didn’t _need_ to eat until Christmas. But then, there had been dessert and the slices of pie would have been enough, but she just had to have one of Oliver’s cookies after they cleared the table. “Now the challenge is to only have one of these.” 

“It’s a holiday. Have two,” Lois teased.

“I will, later,” she told her cousin as she sat back against her chair.

She smirked, leaning back in her chair, as well. “Everything was really good,” she said to Mrs. Kent. 

“It was great,” Chloe agreed, glancing toward the kitchen where Clark and Oliver were cleaning up. 

“And it’s awesome that the menfolk do all the clean-up here,” Lois added, grinning more.

“I think this is perfect, actually,” Chloe told her. “You’ve raised him well, Mrs. Kent.” 

Martha smiled and nodded. “Thank you, and it is nice.”

Lois glanced into the kitchen, watching as the two men washed dishes. “And it’s nice to have Ollie here again. And of course, my favorite cousin.” She shifted her gaze to Chloe, arching her eyebrows.

“I agree,” Martha said with a smile. 

“It’s nice to be back here,” she agreed, smiling at Lois. The previous year she had spent Thanksgiving on her own since Jimmy was supposedly working and had talked her out of spending the money to get back to Smallville for the holiday. 

“We’re glad to have you, Sweetheart,” Martha said sincerely.

“Thank you,” she said with a smile, looking over her shoulder when she saw the boys getting back into the dining room. “Already?”

“Well, Clark here is kind of super-fast,” Oliver pointed out, patting Clark on the shoulder with a grin. 

“It’s so we don’t have to miss out on holiday time,” Clark said. 

“And the game,” Chloe added knowingly.

“Crap! We’re missing the pre-game stuff,” Lois said, her eyes widening as she got to her feet. “Let’s move this party to the living room.” 

“That’s my queue for a nap,” Martha told them, smiling as she stood up, too. 

“We’ll keep it down,” Clark promised as he followed Lois toward the living room.

Oliver shook his head, grimacing and looking at Chloe. “Football fan?” he asked.

“Oh, not at all,” she said, shaking her head. “I usually hide somewhere while the game is on.”

One corner of his mouth quirked upwards. “Well, I guess we can hide together until it’s over.” He arched his eyebrows.

Chloe arched her eyebrows back at him and nodded, smirking. “I like that idea,” she said as she stood up.

“You’re more familiar with this place than I am. Where’s a good hiding place?” 

“The barn,” she told him. “Although we’ll have to see if the portable heater is warm enough for you.”

“Just for me?” he teased.

“Well, I know _I_ can handle it,” she said, glancing toward the living room where Clark and Lois were talking before heading to grab their coats. “C’mon.”

He took his coat from her, shrugging into it and then helping her with hers without thinking about it. “It’s not _too_ cold. Or at least, it wasn’t when I got here.” 

“Well, there’s no more sun now,” she pointed out, sliding her arms into her coat then smiling up at him. “We’ll see.”

He nodded. “We will,” he agreed, opening the door for her.

With a deep breath, Chloe stepped outside, closing her coat as she did. She had been wanting to get him alone since he walked through the door. Not that she knew for sure anything would happen, but she was certainly hoping for it.

They were barely off the porch before he reached out, catching her arm and spinning her to face him, his mouth descending on hers in a passionate kiss.

Chloe didn’t know what was happening for a full second, but as soon as her brain caught up with her body, she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply.

“I’ve been wanting to do that for hours,” he murmured against her lips.

“Me too,” she whispered, brushing her lips to his once again.

He smiled softly against her mouth, brushing his nose over hers. “I’ve missed you.” 

“Missed you too,” she murmured, smiling as she held his gaze.

Cupping her cheek in one hand, he kissed her again, and then pulled away, reaching down and taking her hand in his. “Come on.” 

Chloe slid her fingers through his without hesitation and started toward the barn with him. “Are you really staying all weekend?” She asked.

“Unless there’s any opposition to my staying,” he told her, opening the barn door and stepping inside.

“Well, I mean I don’t know how I’m gonna put up with you being around all this time...” she told him, pursing her lips together to stop from smirking.

“Could be difficult to find alone time here,” he murmured.

“Oh,” she paused when she realized he was serious. “We can always go for a drive?” She suggested, her heart suddenly beating faster.

Oliver paused, too, considering. “Not a bad idea.” 

“I rather have you around and have limited alone time than have to find excuses to go see you in Metropolis and have you be there on your own,” she admitted, pursing her lips together as she pulled him into the barn.

He smiled softly, turning toward her once they were inside. “Ditto,” he whispered.

“Good.” She relaxed a little, looking at him for a moment before kissing him once again. They had managed to mostly keep their hands to themselves after they slept together at the inn, but she was glad that wasn’t the case today. She didn’t know if it was because he’d been gone and they had missed each other or their hormones were being loud again, but she liked this much better.

He slid his arms around her, pulling her closer to him as they kissed. After a moment he laid his forehead against hers. “How’s work been?” His hands were stroking her back lightly.

“Okay, busy luckily,” she told him with a smile as she cupped his cheek. “How were things in Star City?”

“They were fine,” he assured her. “It’s taken care of for the time being.” 

“Good,” she said, searching his gaze. “Maybe next time you go, I can tag along and you can teach me how to surf, like you promised.”

Oliver’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, definitely. I’d love that.” 

She couldn’t help but grin at the look on his face. “Me too, mostly because I’m sure you wouldn’t let me drown.”

“Definitely wouldn’t,” he assured her, grinning back at her and kissing the tip of her nose.

Nodding, she watched him for a moment then paused. “Oh! I found Bart,” she said. “I wasn’t sure it was safe for me to tell you this over the phone.”

His eyes widened at that. “You did? Where?” 

“Through your facial recognition program. He’s from Keystone City, his full name is Bart Allen.”

“Bart Allen,” he echoed, shaking his head. “Is he there now? Do you know?” 

“I wasn’t able to track down his current location, but I know he lives with his aunt, or at least that was the address for his school before he graduated, and I managed to find his phone number.”

He grinned at her. “You’re awesome,” he told her, hugging her.

She smiled and hugged him back. “Wouldn’t have managed this without your program,” she admitted, kissing his cheek. “But I figured we could give him a call sometime?”

“Most definitely,” he agreed. “We can ask him to meet us somewhere, see if he’d be willing to sit down and talk with us. Or maybe just talk over a secured connection via computers so he doesn’t think we’re trying to trap him.”

“Considering what he’s been through, that might be a better idea,” she told him. “And, if you’re not sure about exposing your identity to him yet, I can be the one on camera if we do a videocall.”

“I don’t want to put you in any extra danger either,” he said quietly.

“He literally saved our lives,” she told him, shaking her head. “I’m not worried about him hurting us.”

Oliver pursed his lips, studying her and nodding. “Maybe I can be in my uniform with you so he can see we’re both on the same page.” 

“That’s a good idea,” she agreed after considering for a moment. “I really hope he’ll want to join us.”

“Me too,” Oliver told her, nodding again.

“Okay,” she told him, smiling as she pulled away and reached for his hand. “Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get upstairs and get more comfortable.”

He smiled back at her, sliding his fingers through hers and following her up the wooden stairs to Clark’s loft. He’d decided long ago that only Clark Kent’s barn had been converted to a makeshift hangout spot complete with a desk and a couch.

Chloe let go of his hand to turn on the heater then head toward the couch. “We should have brought cookies.”

He arched an eyebrow. “Hungry again already?” he teased.

“Not hungry at all,” she said as she sat down. “But they were tasty.”

“I’m glad you liked them.” He dropped down beside her, draping his arm over her shoulders and pressing a kiss to her temple. 

She wrapped her arm around his stomach as she leaned against his side. “Pretty sure there’s nothing you can’t do.”

“There’s plenty of stuff I can’t do,” he said with a small smile.

“That’s not my experience,” she said, cocking her head to look at him.

Oliver met her eyes, gently rubbing his fingers over the upper part of her arm. “Well, I can’t superspeed. I can’t fly.” 

“Neither can I,” she told him. “Neither can most people. If you try comparing yourself to Clark Kent, you will go insane.”

A smile quirked his lips. “I can’t hack into computer systems.” 

“But you could learn easily, if you wanted to,” she pointed out, arching her eyebrows.

“I’m just saying...there is stuff I can’t do.” He smiled and kissed her forehead.

“Like take a compliment, obviously,” she told him, hugging him close. “Can I at least tell you you’re one of the most amazing guys I’ve ever met?”

Oliver’s expression softened at that and he rested his head against hers. “Well.” His voice was quieter now than before. “You’re one of the most amazing women I’ve ever met, so I guess that makes us even.” 

She smiled up at him then leaned closer and kissed the corner of his mouth softly. “Guess it does.”


	14. Chapter 14

It was a little after five when Chloe left work that night. Earlier than most days for her, but she’d been looking forward to this since she’d managed to track Bart Allen down. Oliver was still on his way over from Queen Industries, so she let herself into the Clocktower, booted his Lex laptop, started a pot of coffee then began to make sure the network was secured. After some more talk on the subject, they’d agreed that it’d be safer to make the call through the network than one of their phones. 

Once everything was ready, she made her way to the kitchen again and picked up a cup of fresh coffee before focusing on the microwave clock. He shouldn’t be long now and at that thought, she found herself taking a deep breath to subdue the butterflies she suddenly had in her stomach. And that wasn’t good. 

Neither was the fact that even though it was only Tuesday and they had pretty much spent the whole weekend together, she was looking forward to seeing him. She knew that she loved him, she was okay with that. But she didn’t want to be _in_ love with him, not when she was such a huge mess still because of Jimmy and he was still hurting over his ex-fiancee. Definitely not when they were each other’s best friends. Because she’d almost lost Clark’s friendship over something like this and she didn’t want to risk making the same mistake with Oliver. 

Oliver was running late--as per usual, really. He stepped into the penthouse, not the least bit surprised to see Chloe already there and ready to go. He grinned at her, arching his eyebrows as he set down his briefcase and headed for his secret room. He changed into his Green Arrow gear quickly, then shut the door to the room once more. Moving to her side, he smirked at her, sitting down next to her in another chair in front of the laptop. “Sorry I’m late.” 

“Well, after that transformation, I suppose I can forgive you, Arrow,” she told him, grinning softly. “Everything is ready to go.”

“Good. But there is _one_ thing we have to do before we start this teleconference,” he informed her.

“Okay?” She cocked her head to look at him and pulled her hand away from the mouse pad.

He grinned at the puzzled look on her face, dipping his head to kiss her on the mouth. “Just that.” 

Chloe held her breath and kissed him once more before pulling away and grinning, her heart beating fast against her chest. “Great. Now it’ll be so much easier to concentrate,” she teased.

Oliver chuckled, resting his hand between her shoulder blades. “Maybe I want to have a little of your attention all the time,” he teased.

“I don’t think that’s an issue,” she said, trying to sound teasing but holding her breath as she spoke.

“No?” He brushed his thumb over the back of her neck, smiling.

“No,” she whispered, holding his gaze.

“Well, just for the record...” He leaned in a little closer to her. “Ditto.” 

Chloe smiled a little and shook her head, looking at him for a moment longer before pressing her lips to his again. This was really bad.

He lifted his other hand to her cheek, cupping it in his palm and slowly deepening the kiss.

Chloe kissed him back for a long moment before pulling away and taking a deep breath.

Oliver grinned once more, brushing his nose against hers and also taking a deep breath. “All right. Let’s talk to Bart.” 

“Right,” she agreed, turning to focus on the laptop again and dialing his number from it. “I called earlier to make sure it connected but since it rang, I couldn’t check the voicemail to make sure it’s him.”

“Guess we’ll find out.” He just hoped the younger man answered this time.

The phone rang a couple of times before he did. “Hello?” 

“Is this Bart Allen?” Chloe asked, holding her breath as she glanced at Oliver.

“Maybe.” He sounded uncertain.

Chloe took a deep breath and straightened. “I go by Watchtower,” she said. “We ran into each other in Montana a few days ago?”

There was a long pause. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“I think you do,” Oliver spoke up, voice distorted. “You saved both our asses after we saved yours.” 

“This is Green Arrow, by the way,” Chloe added, holding her breath. “We can prove we’re ourselves if you’re willing to have a video call.”

Another long moment of silence, and Oliver glanced at her worriedly, pursing his lips.

“Bart, we just want to talk to you, and if you’re interested, we would like to have you join us in helping people who were in the same situation you were in,” Chloe said.

“All right. I want to make sure you are who you say you are,” he told them.

“Okay,” Chloe agreed. “Are you near a computer?”

“Yeah...” He answered. 

“Get online, and keep the call on, I’ll connect you to our network,” she told him, sitting up and hoping it’d work. 

Oliver glanced at her again, nodding slightly and sitting up a little straighter.

“It’s on,” Bart told them.

A moment later, Chloe managed to connect to his network and secure it, before she started the video call. She gave Oliver a nod then turned to the camera. “Here we are,” she said as the boy’s image showed up on their screen.

Oliver lifted his hand in a wave. “Better now?” he asked hopefully.

Bart’s eyes widened as he stared at them, then nodded a little. “How did you do that?” 

Chloe smiled a little. “You join us, I’ll not only tell you all about it, I’ll teach you too.”

“We think you would make a valuable asset to our team,” Oliver said honestly.

Bart considered them for a moment. “What do you guys do?”

“Help people. People who are trapped in places like Lex Luthor’s facilities. And people who are just in danger in general.” 

“What makes you think I wanna help people?” He asked. 

“You could have left us behind, and let us die at the facility, but you came back. Besides, if I had been captured by Lex and experimented on like you did?” Chloe said with a shake of her head. “I would wanna make sure it never happened again.”

“And a guy with your kind of abilities has the potential to do so much good,” Oliver added. “You could make a real difference. You could change lives.” 

“You could _save_ lives, like you did ours,” Chloe said, arching her eyebrows. 

“I’m not good with that kind of responsibility,” Bart told them.

“Well, what are you good with?” he questioned.

“Running,” he answered. 

“That’s all you gotta do,” Chloe told him.

“You don’t have to give us an answer right now,” he told Bart, chewing the inside of his cheek.

“You don’t,” Chloe agreed then sat up. “But the more people we have helping us and the faster we act, the sooner we will be able to stop Lex from hurting and experimenting on others.”

“It’s not a volunteer position,” he added.

“And the pay is really good,” Chloe said, glancing at Oliver. 

Bart’s expression changed at that. “Really? Someone is actually banking taking Lex down?”

Oliver bit back a smirk. “You could say that.” 

He squinted a little then nodded. “If I decide I want in, who do I talk to?”

He glanced at Chloe, and then looked back at Bart on the screen. “Oliver Queen,” he told the younger man.

Chloe stilled at that but looked down, trying her best not to let her expression show her shock. 

“Like, the rich dude?” Bart asked with a frown.

“The one and only,” he said, nodding.

“This isn’t some corporate bullshit that he wants Lex down so he can beat him or something, right?” 

Chloe couldn’t help but smile at that. Shaking her head, she looked at Bart. “Not at all.”

“We hope to hear from you soon,” Oliver said, offering the young man a smile.

“Check your phone for a phone number when you’re ready,” she added, smiling at him too before disconnecting the call.

“What do you think?” he asked a moment later, pushing his hood back and off his head.

She texted the number quickly then turned to Oliver and nodded a little. “I think that went pretty well.”

“I think we’ve got him,” he agreed with a small smile, pulling his glasses off.

Chloe grinned brightly at him and nodded. “Glad one of us is extremely confident,” she said as she pushed her chair back and stood.

“You’re not?” He cocked his head to the side, watching her.

“I rather not get my hopes up,” she said carefully, squinting down at him. “Better wait and see what happens instead.”

Oliver rose to his feet, moving closer to her and wrapping his arms loosely around her waist. “Maybe what you _need_ is a little bit of hope,” he told her, arching his eyebrows.

She held her breath and looked up at him as she rested her hands on his bare arms. “I have plenty of hope,” she said, smirking a little. “On situations I have full control over.”

“What about faith in other people?” He squeezed her hips lightly. “We’re not _all_ bad.” 

Her face softened at that and she nodded. “That I do have, on very selected, few individuals.”

Nodding, he smiled softly, dipping his head and kissing her cheek. “What do you say I fix us dinner?” 

“Only if it’s something simple and easy that won’t take you hours to prepare,” she agreed.

Oliver hugged her, nodding slightly. “Deal.” 

She cupped his face in both her hands, her chest tightening a little as she looked at him, then leaned in and kissed him deeply.

He returned the kiss without hesitation, sliding his hands down her back and pulling her closer to him.

Chloe wrapped her arms around his neck as she pressed closer to him. She trusted him with her life, literally and he was most definitely on the list of people she had faith in, but the idea of being in a relationship again, with him or anyone else, was terrifying. 

* * * 

Oliver groaned and laid his head against Chloe’s bare collarbone when her phone began to ring again. “Your cousin has the worst timing ever.” 

Chloe shuddered a little and reluctantly shifted under him. “It could be important,” she said, taking a deep breath. “It better be.” She guessed it would be since Lois had called three times already.

“Then you should get it. We can continue this after,” he suggested.

She nodded a little and got up from the bed, grabbing one of his neatly folded t-shirts on her way out of the bedroom and down the hallway. She took another deep breath as she reached for her phone and pulled it to her ear. “Everything okay?” She asked immediately. She couldn’t let Lois know she was annoyed, after all, but if Lois’ answer was yes, she planned on hanging up as soon as possible.

“Not exactly, but it’s not an immediate life-threatening crisis?” Lois responded, sounding very hesitant.

Chloe paused and frowned at that, letting out her breath. “What’s going on? Are you or Clark hurt?”

“No, nothing like that. But after you left work today, something happened. And...you’re not gonna like it.” 

“What is it?” She asked, tensing already. Considering the way Lois was talking, she knew it’d be something to do with Jimmy or Cat. Probably both.

Lois sighed heavily. “Chlo, Jimmy’s moving back here. And he’s just been hired as the newest photographer at the Planet.” 

“They _hired_ him?” She asked loudly, her eyes widening. “He could barely get a gig as a wedding photographer six months ago, how the hell did he get _the Planet_?”

“My guess is? Because of Cat,” Lois said bitterly.

“Of course it’s because of her, but there’s no way Perry would let her blackmail him,” Chloe said, her jaw clenching and then she stilled. “Not unless someone who knew exactly what was in his past, and knew where to look, could feed her the material.”

“What are you saying?” 

“Back when Perry got the job, I told Jimmy about him being in Smallville and the whole issue he had with the Luthors. I hate to think he’d actually be smart enough to pull something like this off, but she is certainly not above blackmail and it’s the only explanation,” she told Lois, her body tense as she started back toward the bedroom. 

“You think he remembers that? From that long ago?” Lois frowned. 

“Maybe I’m giving him too much credit.” Wouldn’t be the first time. Chloe sighed and shook her head. “I guess it doesn’t matter how he got in, anyway.”

“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I just wanted you to have a head’s up and I wasn’t sure you were gonna make it back to Smallville tonight.” 

She hadn’t really been planning on it, but Lois didn’t know that. At least now she had an excuse. “I might just crash here, would you mind bringing me clothes for tomorrow?”

“I can do that. Tell Ollie I said hello.” 

“I will. And thanks for letting me know. I would hate to get into work tomorrow and hear about _that_ from Cat,” Chloe said, her jaw clenching a little.

“Try not to stress about it too much, okay? Clark and I will be there, too, and we’re on your side.” Lois paused. “I love you. Night, Chloe.”

“I know, thanks Lo.” She took a deep breath. “Love you too. Night.”

Oliver was watching her from the faint glow of the lamp by his bed, eyebrows raising. “Everything okay?” 

She looked at him for a moment then groaned and shook her head as she made her way back to his bed and sat down heavily. “Guess who is the Planet’s newest hire?” She asked as she turned toward him and sat up against the headboard.

He could tell by the expression on her face, and from her posture, that it wasn’t a good thing. “I don’t know...” He pushed himself up, so he was sitting, as well.

“Jimmy,” she told him, her jaw tight. “Somehow he finally convinced the Planet to hire him. He couldn’t find a single job in the _entire_ city when we were married and now he’s in one of the top selling papers in the country.”

Oliver frowned deeply at that, cocking his head. “How the hell did he manage _that_?”

“Lois and I are both guessing Cat had something to do with it. And, as much as I can’t stand him, he _isn’t_ a bad photographer and he has worked for the Planet before, but the timing. It’s obvious,” Chloe said with a sigh.

He pursed his lips, reaching out and draping his arm around her shoulders. “It’s shitty timing,” he agreed quietly.

“I was hoping _he_ would take her away, and not the other way around,” she admitted, leaning against his side. “I mean, everyone at work already knows we got divorced, having them there together with that kid will just be humiliating.” 

He leaned his head against hers. “Want me to buy the Planet and fire both of them?” he asked, only half-joking.

She looked at him for a moment and smiled a little, despite herself. “I appreciate the thought,” she said quietly. 

Oliver kissed her forehead, rubbing her arm gently. “How can I help?” 

“Let me crash at your place yet again?” She asked, closing her eyes as she laid her head on his shoulder.

“Of course. Mi casa...”

“Thank you,” she whispered to him, turning more toward him and wrapping her arm around his stomach. “What would I do without you?” 

Oliver shifted, too, sliding his arm around her in a reclined hug. “Let’s not find out.” 

“Okay, I like that plan,” she said quietly, taking a deep breath. “All I want is to never see either of them ever again, is that too much to ask?”

Rubbing her back, he shook his head. “No. Not at all.” 

“Sorry this ruined our night,” she said sincerely, pulling back to look at him.

“Hey.” He frowned at that, gazing at her. “Don’t even worry about that.”

Nodding a little, she shrugged a shoulder. “I just much rather have fun with you than worry about how it will be, getting to work tomorrow or whenever his first day is,” she said then made a face. “Ugh this feels like high school.”

Oliver studied her for a moment. “Want me to find some way to...distract you from your thoughts?” 

She hesitated, not entirely sure she would be able to get into what she thought he was suggesting considering she was back to feeling like someone who would get cheated on and dumped by Jimmy Olsen of all people. “I don’t know how well it will work,” she admitted. 

He met her eyes, considering her words for a moment, and then casually leaning down, pressing a kiss to her shoulder. “No?’ 

Chloe paused at that and chewed on her bottom lip, instantly remembering what, exactly, her cousin had interrupted. “I don’t know... but I guess you can try?”

“Only if you want me to. If you wanna watch movies or do something else, that’s fine, too.” He pressed a light kiss to her jaw.

“That’s what I was thinking,” she said, lifting her head as she shifted on the bed. “But, maybe you have a better idea.”

He shifted, too, propping his head up on one hand and leaning on his elbow. 

She looked at him for a moment then lowered her body on the bed some more, holding his gaze before leaning in and pressing her lips to his. 

Oliver reached out, sliding his free hand through her blonde hair as they kissed, then letting it trail down her body to rest at her hip, slowly sliding the shirt up a little so he could touch her bare skin. 

At the feel of his warm hand on her hip, she shifted closer and wrapped a leg around him as she half laid on top of him and deepened the kiss.

He let her set the pace, stroking her skin as they kissed. One way or another, he wanted to help her forget about Jimmy Olsen, even if it was only for a few hours.


	15. Chapter 15

“So what do you think?” Oliver arched his eyebrows as he looked around the empty apartment. It was the third one they’d looked at that day, and by far it was his personal favorite. It also had another advantage that the others didn’t--it wasn’t far from _his_ place. Not that he was factoring that in at all. He turned to look at Chloe to see what she thought of the place.

“Well, the location is definitely the best part,” Chloe told him as she looked around. The place had apparently been empty for a while, so the rent had been lowered recently, and considering her budget had increased thanks to Watchtower work, she could definitely afford it. “I was thinking of something smaller, but...” 

“But you like it,” he finished, nodding. “It’s my favorite out of the ones we’ve looked at, too,” he admitted.

“I definitely can’t argue with the view,” she said, looking over the balcony window, toward the Planet and the Clocktower.

He smiled at that, moving up to stand behind her and sliding his arms around her waist. “It is a nice view.” 

Chloe leaned back against him and wrapped her arms over his. “Think you’d wanna come visit often?” She asked, leaning her head against his chest and turning it up.

“Definitely,” he agreed, pressing a kiss to her temple and smiling down at her.

“That’s a plus,” she said, taking a deep breath then pulling away so she could turn and face him. “Let’s see the rest of it.”

Nodding, he took her hand, leading her away from the balcony and toward the kitchen. “The kitchen isn’t huge, but...” He gave her a little grin. 

“But, you’ll be the only one using it for something other than coffee and the microwave?” She smirked, cocking her head.

“Basically.” His grin brightened as he leaned back against the counter. “So when I want to cook we can just go to my place.” 

“Well, most of the time, anyway,” she agreed, leaning closer to him and pressing her hands to his sides. 

Oliver slanted his mouth over hers, eyes drifting shut. It seemed like anytime they got too close, it was inevitable that they would end up at least kissing. He felt a pull to her that he’d never felt with another woman before.

And even though they’d been sleeping together for over a month already, she didn’t seem to be able to stop herself from touching him whenever they were within touching distance of each other. And kissing him was definitely one of her favorite things to do. She knew she had feelings for him, as much as she tried to ignore it, it was hard to when she missed him as much as she did whenever they couldn’t meet up after work. But their agreement to be friends with benefits was apparently working really well still, so she didn’t have to worry about said feelings for now.

He cupped her face in his hands even as the kiss ended, and he smiled at her. “So does that mean this is the apartment for you?” he asked, searching her eyes.

“I think so,” she said quietly, holding his gaze. “Clark and Lois probably won’t be too happy but, at least they can crash on the extra bedroom if they ever need to.”

“It’ll be easier for you being so close to work,” he said, tucking some hair behind her ear. “Instead of always going back and forth.” 

“And instead of asking Lois to bring me clothes when I stay at your place,” she said, arching her eyebrows.

Oliver smiled at that, nodding. “And you’ll have some privacy.” 

“Yeah,” she agreed then took a deep breath. “I guess it will be good once I figure out this whole living alone thing.”

“Well, if you have questions, you could always ask me. I’m kind of an expert on the subject.” His voice was light.

“Thanks,” she said, smirking a little. “Do you like it?”

“It has it’s advantages.” He arched his eyebrows, resting his hands on her hips.

“Like walking around naked?” She teased.

He smirked. “And walking around naked with good friends who are _also_ naked.” 

“Well, but then you’re not alone,” she pointed out, sliding her hands up his arms.

“Walking around naked alone is _much_ less exciting.” He pulled her a little closer.

“What do you like doing when you’re on your own, then?” She asked, lifting a hand to his neck.

“Mostly Green Arrow related stuff,” he told her. “But...sometimes I like to just relax and listen to music or watch a movie or read a book.” 

“Does sound relaxing,” she agreed, then grinned. “Somehow I think you’d last about half an hour ‘relaxing’, though.”

A corner of his mouth turned up at that. “It is a bit of a rarity.” 

“Yeah, I’d get bored really fast,” she admitted, smirking a little.

“You are a thrill-seeker,” he teased.

“Hardly, but relaxing doesn’t sound entertaining enough,” she said, then paused, glancing toward the door then back at him. “Although, some thrill is always welcome.”

He cocked an eyebrow at her. “What kind of thrill is it that you’re welcoming right now?” He pressed a kiss to her jaw.

She shivered a little and shrugged. “Well, before I can really consider this place,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I do need to make sure it’s sound proof.”

He smiled against her skin, nodding slightly. “Good idea. I take it that means you expect to be noisy while living here?” He pressed his lips to her throat.

“I expect to make a moderate amount of noise, a couple times a week, at least,” she said, holding her breath as she pressed her body against his, even as she reached to unzip his coat.

“Just a couple of times a week?” he questioned, sliding his jacket off and reaching for the hem of her shirt.

“I said _at least_ ,” she corrected him, lifting her arms for him to pull her shirt up.

“Point.” He nodded, letting her shirt fall to the floor with his jacket and leaning down, picking her up and setting her down on the kitchen counter so they were at eye-level. “I do like these counters.” He grinned.

She reached for his own shirt and pulled it up before tossing them on the floor, too. “They do seem to be the perfect height,” she said as she wrapped her legs around him.

“Exactly,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her collarbone. He reached down, unbuttoning her jeans.

Chloe shivered again and pulled him closer, lowering her head and pressing her lips to his neck.

Oliver inhaled deeply at the feel of her mouth against his skin. It was a sensation he couldn’t seem to get enough of. He trailed his fingertips across her shoulder, sliding one of her bra straps down and then kissing her there.

She smiled a little at his reaction then nibbled on his skin gently before pressing her lips to it again as she slid one of her hands into his hair.

Oliver trailed kisses down her neck to her collarbone, placing one above her breasts and pausing at the sound of footsteps. He quickly lifted his head, spotting Lois a few feet away, frozen in the doorway, her eyes comically wide.

Chloe paused when he did, frowning a little at the look on his face. “Wha--” she started to ask when she heard the noise and looked over her shoulder, the look on her face mirroring her cousin’s even as she quickly got down from the counter.

“Well.” Lois arched her eyebrows. “I shouldn’t be surprised by this, I guess.” She smirked. 

Oliver quickly picked up Chloe’s shirt, handing it over to her and then picking up his, as well, pulling it on. “I thought you weren’t coming here til later?” He blocked her view of Chloe with his body.

“What if someone else had been in here?” Chloe asked once she had her shirt on, less worried about her cousin seeing her without a shirt, and more worried about Lois finding out. “Why aren’t you at work?”

“I told you I’d meet you here at 3,” Lois pointed out, glancing at her watch. Granted, it was only 2:45 and she was never early, but still. 

Chloe rubbed a hand over her face and took a deep breath. At least Lois had been alone, she’d be completely mortified if Clark had been there. 

“So.” Lois smirked at them once more, shifting her gaze from Chloe to Oliver and back again. “Looked like the two of you were having fun.” 

With a look at Oliver, she sighed a little then focused on her cousin. “It’s not what you think.”

Oliver pursed his lips, looking at Chloe and then rubbing a hand over the back of his neck, a guilty expression on his face. 

“So you two weren’t about to get busy shining the kitchen counter?” Lois challenged.

With an annoyed sigh, Chloe gave Lois a look. 

If anything, Lois just looked more amused by her cousin’s annoyance.

Shaking her head, Chloe focusing on Oliver again. “Guess we should go,” she said because there was no way in hell she would have this conversation with Lois in front of him.

“Why don’t I go talk to the apartment manager and get her rolling with the paperwork?” he suggested.

Chloe hesitated for a moment then took a deep breath and nodded. Better to get rid of him and have the talk with Lois before Clark decided to show up.

“Okay. I’ll be back in a bit,” he said, carefully avoiding Lois’s eyes as he made his way out of the kitchen and then out of the apartment.

As soon as Oliver was out and the apartment and the door was closed, Chloe took a deep breath and focused on her cousin. “It is _not_ what you think,” she said again.

Lois smiled brightly. “I think it’s _exactly_ what I think.” There was excitement in her voice.

Chloe paused at the look on Lois’ face and frowned. “Why do you look like that?”

“Because I knew this would happen!” She beamed.

“We’re not together, Lois,” she clarified. 

“Uh huh.” She folded her arms across her chest.

“We’re _not_ ,” she said firmly. “We just... sleep together, sometimes.” All the time.

She paused at that, cocking her head to the side. “Like what? Friends with benefits?” 

“Something like that,” she agreed, arching her eyebrows.

Lois considered her for a moment. “No, I don’t buy it.” 

“What do you mean, you don’t buy it?” Chloe asked, frowning hard. “I’m telling you that’s all it is.”

“No, I know you. You might want to believe that’s all that’s going on between the two of you, but you care about him more than that, and he adores you. I’ve seen the look on his face when you aren’t looking.” Lois gave her a knowing look.

“I never denied the fact that I care about him. He did become one of my best friends. But I’m still finalizing my divorce and we both saw how he reacted last time he saw Tess Mercer, Lois. I don’t think either of us needs to be in any form of relationship right now,” Chloe said exactly what she’d been reminding herself over and over lately.

Lois rolled her eyes. “You can’t equate your relationship with Oliver to your relationship with Jimmy or his relationship with Tess. It’s entirely different.” 

“How is it different, Lois?” She asked, shaking her head. “Because we get along? That can change.”

“Because you actually have things in common,” Lois corrected her. “Important things. And you know all the big stuff about each other. And you’re obviously _compatible_ in important ways.” 

“It doesn’t matter, Lois. Things can still go wrong and I care about him too much to risk it,” she said with a shake of her head. “Besides, this works.”

Lois resisted the urge to point out that she was already risking a lot with this situation. 

“Just, forget about it?” Chloe asked, shaking her head. “I don’t want it to be a big deal. More importantly, I don’t want things to change.”

She sighed heavily. “I’ll let it go. For _now_ ,” she warned.

“Thank you,” Chloe sighed softly. If that was all Lois was willing to do, she’d take it. For now.


	16. Chapter 16

It was a little after two in the afternoon when Chloe and Oliver finally made it out of her new apartment to go to lunch. They had been unpacking all morning and while they had made a lot of progress, there was still a lot to do. “I think we need to focus on the bedroom when we get back,” she said as they stepped out of the building. “It should make it livable in once that’s done.”

He nodded his agreement. “That is the most important room in one’s new place,” he said lightly, glancing at her sideways as they walked downtown.

“Exactly.” She grinned a little and linked her arm with his. “So where do you wanna eat?”

“Someplace we can celebrate?” he suggested. 

“I don’t know if we’re dressed for the Ace of Clubs,” she said, looking down at her jeans.

He grinned. “I didn’t say the celebration had to be _formal_ ,” he pointed out, looking at his own jeans. 

“Well, I just assume that any celebration worth having should involve alcohol,” she pointed out, grinning too. “There’s that pub on 7th we could try?”

“Sounds good to me.” He winked at her as they walked down the sidewalk arm-in-arm.

“I think we’ll be done today, when Clark and Lois come help it should go by faster,” she said, smiling up at him. Most of her furniture had been at the Talon apartment still, so it had been easy to pack it up with Clark’s help and get it to Metropolis. But then he and Lois had gone into work and wouldn’t be able to help until that night.

“Yeah, I think so, too. Blue makes it easy to move quickly.” He grinned.

“Blue? Is that what we’re calling him now? Should I just start calling you Green?” She asked in a lower voice. 

Oliver laughed, letting go of her arm and winding his arm around her waist, squeezing her affectionately closer to him. “Would that mean I get to call you Blondie?” he teased.

“Blondie isn’t really a color,” she said as she wrapped her arm around his back. “My uniform is black, though.”

“Blonde is sort of a color,” he said, cocking his head to the side.

“Sort of,” she agreed, squinting at him as she considered it. 

“Chloe?” A male voice called.

Oliver turned at the sound of the voice, arching an eyebrow at the shorter man that had called Chloe’s name. He had curly brown hair and blue eyes and he was wearing a sweater and a bow tie. He glanced at Chloe questioningly.

Chloe turned around too, stilling when she saw Jimmy there, and a very pregnant Cat right behind him.“Jimmy,” she greeted, her expression as neutral as possible as she glanced over at Oliver. 

Beside her, Oliver tensed a little at the other man’s name. He shifted his gaze back to Jimmy once more, arching an eyebrow at him and shifting closer to Chloe unconsciously. 

Cat was staring at both of them, eyes wide. 

At the look on Cat’s face, Chloe straightened and focused on Oliver once more. “These are Jimmy and Cat,” she said, not bothering with last names, she knew he would know exactly who they were. “And I’m sure you know this is Oliver Queen,” she added, arching her eyebrows.

“Right, the gossip columnist and her baby daddy.” He smirked faintly, rubbing his hand gently over her back and then looking at her. “Nice to meet you both.” Even though his tone indicated he was bored. 

Chloe almost smirked at Oliver’s choice of words. “We should go,” she said, arching her eyebrows. “I’m sure I’ll see you at work.” 

Jimmy’s eyes looked like they could pop right out of his head. “Right. Work,” he echoed as Chloe and Oliver moved around them and continued down the sidewalk. 

“Nice meeting you, Mr. Queen!” Cat called after them.

Rolling her eyes, Chloe glanced up at Oliver but remained silent as they walked away.

He snorted at Cat’s response, shaking his head ever-so-slightly and looked down at Chloe. “Really?” 

“That’s Cat Grant for you,” she said, shaking her head. 

He was quiet for a moment as they walked. “And that was Jimmy Olsen.” 

“That was Jimmy Olsen,” she confirmed, pursing her lips together as she looked up at him.

Oliver met her eyes and arched an eyebrow at her, remaining silent.

“I hadn’t seen him yet, well, I kinda saw him when he came into the Planet last week, but I pretended I didn’t,” she admitted. “Guess I should get used to him being around.”

“Seems like he’ll probably be around,” he agreed slowly, thumb moving lightly over her hip. 

Chloe looked over her shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed then took a deep breath as she shifted closer to Oliver. “It’s weird. Seeing him doesn’t hurt like I assumed it would,” she admitted, pursing her lips together. “Mostly I just hate it that he fooled me. But I don’t miss him at all.”

“Well, I’m glad to hear that,” Oliver said honestly. “I do have one question for you though, now that I’ve met the guy.” 

She wrinkled her nose a little and cocked her head. “Okay?” 

“How exactly did _you_ end up with...well, _him?_ ” he asked, voice dubious.

“I knew it,” she said, smiling and shaking her head. “Did you know I had a crush on Clark through most of high school?”

Oliver shook his head, too. “Can’t say that I did,” he told her, glancing at her sideways.

“Well, I did. And he never really saw me that way, which is a good thing because we probably wouldn’t be as good friends now if he had.” She took a deep breath. “Anyway, I met Jimmy while I was interning at the Planet, and he paid attention to me,” she said, shrugging a little. 

“So once upon a time, he actually wasn’t a complete idiot,” he surmised.

Smiling a little, she shrugged again. “I like to think he wasn’t, you know it’s better on my ego. Lois will argue, though.”

“Well if he took an interest in you, then it does show that he had good taste at some point,” he told her as they approached the pub.

“Thanks,” she said sincerely, smiling up at him. “I’m glad you were with me when I actually ran into him, though.”

“Me too,” he told her, opening the door for her and smiling back.

Chloe smiled up at him and took a deep breath as she walked into the pub, then paused. She looked over at Oliver, her expression turning worried but she remained silent as they were shown to their table.

He caught the look on her face as they were settling into a booth in the corner. “What is it?” 

“Cat,” she said, looking up to him. “I don’t know if she’d print anything because she hates me, but she is the gossip columnist.”

“Do you think Perry would _let_ her print about a co-worker?” he asked, frowning.

“That’s a good point, but it doesn’t mean she can’t sell it to another paper,” she told him.

“I’m surprised her contract would allow for that.” He leaned back in the booth.

“It does as long as it’s under a pen name. There are some things the Planet just can’t publish, but sometimes we can print them on a smaller paper to get enough evidence for it to be Planet material,” she told him and sighed softly. “Like I said, I don’t know if she will because that’d mean she’d have to say I’m seeing a billionaire.”

He studied her for a moment. “Well, I’m not worried about it one way or the other, and if she or anyone else tries to publish something that’s incorrect, I’ll have my lawyers all over it.” 

“Okay,” she agreed, relaxing a little. “I mean, it doesn’t bother me. It’d certainly be an image boost from being the person Jimmy Olsen dumped, but it could get messy.”

“How so?” he asked, curious to hear her reasoning.

“Well, press, paparazzi, you know how it works,” she said, making a face. “And Lois.”

“Ah, Lois.” He nodded slightly, watching her as he picked up his glass of water and took a drink. 

“I’m surprised she hasn’t said anything else,” Chloe admitted.

“Give her time,” he joked, setting his glass down once more. 

“I know,” Chloe agreed then shook her head. 

“I think she just worries about you,” he told her quietly. “She doesn’t want to see you get hurt.” 

“I know she does,” she said, sipping on her water, too. “I just don’t want her to assume stuff that isn’t there.”

“Like the possibility of you getting hurt?” he asked carefully.

“No, I think she knows you better than that,” she said, smiling a little. “More like the whole relationship thing.”

Oliver nodded, picking up his glass of water again, and reaching out under the table with his left foot, nudging her foot.

She took a deep breath and smiled at him as she straightened. “Guess we’ll worry about her when that happens, too.”

“No point in worrying about things until something actually happens,” he agreed, offering her a soft smile. He glanced up as a server approached to take their order.

“Fried food?” Chloe asked Oliver, smiling before ordering a couple of the greasy dishes along with a drink.

Oliver ordered a chicken sandwich and a salad. “As fried as it gets for me,” he teased.

“Okay, I’m keeping Lois as my pub-going partner,” she said, mock squinting at him.

He widened his eyes. “Well, that’s just rude, Chloe.” 

“You ordered a _salad_ at a _pub_ , Ollie. I’m pretty sure there’s a rule against that somewhere,” she pointed out.

“Hah, I challenge you to find such a rule in the pub-goers handbook,” he responded with a smirk.

“I will do my research,” she said, smirking back at him. 

“Good. I can hardly wait to see the results of this research.” 

It was her turn to nudge his foot with her own. “I hope you like being proven wrong.”

“I so rarely am,” he answered, smirk broadening as he nudged her foot back again, completely oblivious to everyone else in the restaurant.

* * * 

Oliver flopped down on Chloe’s bed, which had taken nearly an hour and a half just to put together. When you added in the fact they’d also arranged the rest of the bedroom and unpacked everything that went in it, and put it all in its proper places, he knew they had reason to be tired. “I take back what I said earlier.” 

“What?” She asked, already laying on the bed and only turning her head toward him.

“You _do_ have too much stuff,” he complained.

“I only have essential stuff,” she told him, reaching out and poking him on the side.

He grinned, shaking his head and wiggling away from her. “Eighty thousand pairs of shoes is _not_ essential.” 

“You should be glad it’s not Lois you’re helping move,” she told him, reaching for his shirt as she shifted away.

“Oh, believe me, I am,” he assured her, catching her hand in his.

“Then quit whining, Arrow. Or I’ll make you go get me coffee,” she threatened, holding on to his hand and tugging on it.

“Oh, you’ll _make_ me, huh?” He smirked, rolling over onto his side to face her and gently tugging on her hand.

“I will,” she promised, cocking her head to look better at him and grinning.

He couldn’t help but grin back at her, shaking his head, then reaching out and tickling her side. “You’re not scary, Tower.” 

Chloe gasped and shifted away. “Don’t make me move,” she complained, reaching for his hand this time.

He chuckled, letting his hand drop from her side and then flopping onto his back once more. “I don’t think either of us should move until we’ve had like, fourteen hours of sleep.” He shut his eyes.

“I would agree if I wasn’t hungry,” she said, taking a deep breath and turning on her side to face him. “Though, I guess a nap before food would work.”

“Are you gonna be able to sleep while you’re hungry?” 

“I’m exhausted, so yes,” she told him, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. “At least the bed is comfy.”

“Agreed,” he said, yawning. Then he sat up, eyes narrowing. 

Chloe frowned, opening her eyes when she felt him moving. “What?”

“I heard something,” he told her, but paused as he caught sight of Clark and Lois stepping into the room. “Intruders.” He smiled.

“Now you get here,” Chloe said, sitting up too and smiling at them. 

“We brought pizza,” Clark announced, lifting the boxes in his hand.

“Awesome. Chloe was just saying she was hungry.” Oliver smiled at her, climbing to his feet and holding his hand out to help her up off the bed. 

“Starving,” she corrected him, taking his hand and standing up too. “At least we can use the coffee table.”

“But not starving enough you weren’t going to be able to sleep,” he teased her, smirking. 

Lois looked between them, smirking, too. “Let’s eat. Chloe’s not the only one who’s hungry.” 

“Too much energy,” she told him, smiling up at him as they started out of the bedroom. 

“We brought sodas and napkins, too,” Clark announced as he set the pizzas down.

“You guys thought of everything,” Oliver commented, arching his eyebrows as he sat down on the living room floor. 

“We usually do,” Lois responded with a smirk.

“Thanks,” Chloe said as she sat down next to Oliver. “We actually managed to finish the bedroom.”

“We saw,” Lois told her, opening one of the pizza boxes and pulling out a slice of meat lover’s. She took a big bite, groaning and then leaning against Clark.

Clark smiled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as he reached for a slice of pizza, too. “Better?” 

“Apparently, pornographicaly so,” Chloe said, wrinkling her nose at her cousin as she picked up a slice of the meat pizza, too.

“Speaking of porn,” Lois said, mouth still full of food as she looked over at her cousin. 

“What?” Chloe asked, arching her eyebrows at Lois. They had been fully clothed and decent this time.

Oliver held his breath as he reached for a piece of pizza. “Smells great,” he commented, trying to change the subject.

Clark frowned a little then shrugged, focusing on Oliver. “It’s from the place two doors down from here, if it’s good, Chloe is lucky.”

“Especially if they deliver, too,” he agreed.

“They do,” Clark said with a smile. 

Chloe kept her eyes on Lois for a moment then took a deep breath and nodded at Clark. “It’s pretty good.”

“Guess you and Ollie will be eating from there a lot,” Lois said casually.

Clark looked at Lois, a confused expression on his face. “I’m sure they deliver at his place, too,” he suggested. 

“Either way, it’s not too far,” she said, shrugging as she smiled at him. 

Oliver glanced at Chloe sideways, arching his eyebrows.

Rolling her eyes, Chloe shook her head, glancing at Oliver too, then back at Lois. “So, we ran into Jimmy and Cat when we went to get lunch today.” That should keep her away from any other subjects for a while.

Narrowing her eyes, Lois turned her attention back to her cousin. “How’d _that_ go?” 

“About as awkward as you’d expect. Just introduced them and then we left,” she told Lois. 

“So you were with her?” Lois asked Ollie. 

“I was,” he confirmed, taking a bite of pizza and chewing quickly. 

“Cat almost died when she realized who he was,” Chloe said, rolling her eyes. 

“She might write about it,” Clark added, frowning worriedly. 

“Yeah, we already discussed that, actually,” Oliver told him.

“Ollie has lawyers if she does, and he does have a good point about Perry not letting her publish it, so we should be okay,” Chloe said with a shrug.

“And my reputation isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be, so even if we are linked together in the press, the fallout _shouldn’t_ be too bad,” he added, dropping his gaze to his piece of pizza.

Chloe pursed her lips together and reached over, patting Oliver’s leg without thinking about it. “I’m not worried about it. Let them think whatever they want.”

He smiled a bit at that, taking a bite of food and looking over at her.

She smiled back at him, holding his gaze. The last thing she wanted was for him to think she’d be embarrassed of being seen with him, of someone thinking they were dating. She didn’t want to analyze _why_ it was so important for him to understand that, but it was. 

Clark paused and watched the two of them for a moment, then looked at Lois questioningly. 

Lois just gave him a knowing smile, patting his back lightly. 

When Chloe realized Lois and Clark were staring at them, she pulled her hand away quickly and took a deep breath, focusing back on her food.

Oliver looked at her a moment longer, then went back to his food, as well. 

Lois grinned once more. Not a relationship my ass, she thought.

* * * 

As soon as Ollie offered to take out the trash, after they ate, Lois didn’t waste any time before following him out of the apartment and into the elevator. “I’ll help!” She called, even though she wasn’t carrying anything.

He arched an eyebrow at her. “How else would I have managed?” he teased, reaching out and pressing the button for the ground floor.

“It would have been incredibly lonely,” she assured him.

“Naturally.” He eyed her as the elevator began to descend. “What’s up, Lois?” 

“You and Chloe, obviously,” she said, smirking and arching her eyebrows. “When are you going to come out of the relationship closet and just be happy already? You two deserve it.”

“Couldn’t convince Chloe of anything, so you decided to tackle me instead?” he guessed.

“Didn’t even try, I know my cousin and when she’s determined, she will continue to make stupid decisions no matter what I say. She married Jimmy, didn’t she?”

Oliver grimaced at that. “Seriously, what the hell did she see in him?” 

“Her ego isn’t the best on the whole relationship thing, he chased her around a couple of times and she decided she’d never find anyone else who would, so she settled,” Lois said with a sigh. 

“So I need to chase her.” It wasn’t a question.

“No, she already has feelings for you. But, nudging her into making it official won’t hurt.”

“How do you suggest I do that?” he asked curiously. 

“Show her you’re serious about it, that you actually care about her and you don’t care that she has issues,” Lois told him with a shrug. “I knew the two of you were going to get together, just didn’t think it’d take so damn long,” she added smugly.

He gave her a look. “It’s better this way.” 

Lois paused at that. “No it isn’t.”

“I meant that we’ve taken our time with things,” he assured her.

“Oh, good,” Lois said, relaxing and smiling at him. “At least one of you gets it.”

“I’ve had it for awhile,” Oliver confessed, glancing at her as they stepped off the elevator and headed out into the apartment building’s library. “I’ve been afraid to push her, but you’re right. It’s time to make my move.” 

“Of course I’m right,” Lois said proudly, smiling at him as she took his arm. “Make your move, do something romantic, Jimmy never did. She won’t be able to say no.”

“Never at all?” he asked, frowning as they headed outside toward the dumpster.

“Nope, showing up to the wedding was probably the biggest thing he did for her. And they got married at the _barn_ because they couldn’t afford anything else. That is so far from good enough for Chloe,” Lois said, shaking her head.

“No kidding,” he murmured, frowning more. “Well, I’ll think of something.” Something big. Something she wouldn’t be able to say no _to_.


	17. Chapter 17

It had taken him a few days of planning to be able to pull off what he had in mind. He’d spent the entire day cooking after spending the morning setting up most of the decor. Not only did the place look great, but the food, which he’d sampled just to make sure it tasted _perfect_ , impressed even him. When he was done cooking, he glanced at his watch, grinning. She should be there within fifteen minutes. He made sure all of the little notes were in place and then made his way to the roof with the picnic basket in his hand. 

Chloe smelled the food the second the elevator doors opened, shaking her head, she smiled. “Ollie? I told you you didn’t have to make anything,” she called as she walked into the Clocktower. “I was talking to Bart and he thinks he found a new facili--” She paused when he realized the whole place, including the kitchen, was completely silent. “Ollie?” She called, then just as as she was about to set her purse on the couch like she always did, she saw a note, recognizing his handwriting instantly.

Frowning, she picked up the star-shaped paper and paused when she read it. ‘You have a breath-taking smile.’ Pausing, Chloe shook her head a little. “Ollie, what is this?” She asked, noticing another note on the hallway, she walked over toward it and picked it up. ‘I love your eyes.’ 

With a deep breath, Chloe continued down the hallway, picking up more notes as she went, all of them had little compliments on them that were making her heart skip a beat when she read them. The notes led her to his bedroom, and she’d been expecting to see him there, but all she found was another note over the bed that read ‘Meet me on the roof.’

Her heart was beating fast as she made her way upstairs, she had no idea what to expect of this, but she was nervous. “Ollie?” She called yet again as she got halfway up the narrow stairs.

“Come on up,” he called, even as she could hear the sound of...ocean waves? “Take your shoes off before you come on, though.” 

Frowning, she did as he suggested, feeling the heat coming from the roof even though it was nearly freezing out. As she got to the top of the stairs, she stilled completely at the set up. There was... sand? All over the rooftop. Heaters and heat lamps were part of the beach-like decoration, along with a small palm tree and a picnic basket was set up in the middle of everything. Her eyes were wide as she took it all in, then she focused on him, completely unsure of what to say.

“Welcome to the beach,” he told her with a bright smile as he walked toward her, holding his hand out to her. 

She took his hand and looked down at the sand as she carefully stepped on it, walking up to him. The sensation of the sand beneath her feet, plus the heat and the sound of waves made it all very surreal. Like a dream you can’t quite understand. “What is all this?” She asked, uncertain as she focused on him again.

“I wanted to do something special for you,” he admitted quietly, holding her gaze and squeezing her hand, then lifting it to his lips, kissing her knuckles. 

Chloe squeezed his hand and held her breath. “Why?” She murmured before she could stop herself.

“I’ve wanted to for awhile,” he told her, lifting his other hand to her cheek. “Because you deserve things that are special. Because...Chloe, _you’re_ special.” 

She swallowed hard as she stared up at him, then shook her head a little. “Oliver...” She wanted to say something else, but she couldn’t seem to figure out what.

“It’s true,” he said sincerely. “You are special. I think you’re amazing.” He gently pulled her over toward the picnic area, where a checkered blanket was spread out. 

She took a deep breath even as her eyes teared up a little, focusing down on the sand as she walked with him. 

Oliver knelt down on the blanket, looking up at her and tugging lightly on her hand so she would do the same. “You look beautiful,” he said quietly.’

Chloe knelt down next to him and took a moment before looking at him again. She wanted to ask him why again, but she knew she would get the same answer. “You didn’t have to do all this.”

“No, but I really wanted to,” he told her, searching her eyes. He reached into the picnic basket and pulled out a small wrapped box. He held his breath for a moment, then held it out to her.

She blinked a few times and stared down at the box and back at him but didn’t reach for it.

“It’s not a big deal. I just saw this and I couldn’t not get it for you,” he admitted with a small smile.

Pursing her lips together, she reached for it, unwrapping it before opening the box and letting out a breath when she saw just a necklace inside. She pulled it out carefully and smiled a little when she realized it had her name on it. “Thank you,” she whispered, looking up at him.

“You’re welcome,” he said quietly. 

Chloe hesitated then shifted from kneeling to sitting on the blanket. “I don’t understand what’s going on,” she admitted, setting the box on her lap as she looked at him.

He watched her for a moment. “I know that we agreed that we wouldn’t let this turn into anything more, but...hasn’t it already?” His voice was soft. “Chloe, you’re the first thing on my mind every morning and the last thing on my mind when I go to sleep at night. I think about you all the time during the day...” He gazed at her intently. “I know you’re afraid of getting hurt, but I’m not Jimmy Olsen. I wouldn’t ever do anything to intentionally hurt you.” 

Her eyes teared up as he spoke, her chest tight as she watched him, then looked down, taking a deep breath. “I know you’re not,” she whispered, her voice wavering. 

He reached out, gently cupping her cheek in one hand. “Chloe, I love you,” he admitted in a whisper. “I have for awhile. I just didn’t want to push you or I would have told you sooner.” 

“I love you, too,” she admitted, looking at him again and taking a deep breath. “And that’s the problem.”

“Why is it a problem?” he asked softly, reaching down and grasping her hand in his once more. “Let’s figure it out together.” 

She held onto his hand instantly and looked down at it for a moment. “I don’t wanna lose you.”

Oliver was quiet for a moment. “Because of the Green Arrow thing?” he asked.

“What?” She asked, confused for a moment then shook her head. “No. Not that. I just... the more involved we are, the worse it will be if something goes wrong,” she said quietly, looking up at him. “And if we make this official... we will grow even closer and that’s terrifying.”

He relaxed at that, nodding slightly in understanding. “We’ve already been getting closer all the time,” he said gently. “And we’re together in all the big ways except this one.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. 

“I know,” she sighed softly, squeezing his hand. She had tried to ignore it as much as possible, but she knew it was the truth, she had for a while. 

“I think we have something pretty amazing,” he told her, linking their fingers together. “And I think it could be even more amazing if we’re just willing to take a leap of faith.” 

“And if it falls apart?” She asked in a whisper. 

“That’s where the faith part comes in,” he whispered back. “I don’t think it has to fall apart.” 

“I just don’t wanna lose you,” she admitted, holding his gaze.

“You won’t,” he said sincerely. “Even if it doesn’t work out...Chloe, you’re my best friend. You’re stuck with me one way or another.” 

“Promise?” She asked, a little more hopeful than before.

“Cross my heart,” he told her with a soft smile.

“Because I can’t lose my best friend, either,” she told him quietly.

“And you never will.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “See, I think we went about this the right way. We became best friends first.” 

Her chest tightened and she nodded a little. “I hope we did.”

“Let’s make the same deal we did when we decided to add the benefits part to our relationship,” he suggested. “Let’s keep the friendship first and foremost. And I think we’ll be okay.” 

“Okay,” she agreed, shifting closer to him and cupping his face in her free hand. “I think that could work.”

Oliver smiled softly, nodding as he met her eyes. “Now, I’ve been thinking. Remember a few weeks ago when you offered to come with me to Star City the next time I went?” 

“Yeah,” she said, arching her eyebrows.

“Well, I need to head back there in a couple weeks. For about three days. Would you be interested in accompanying me?” He smiled.

“Will those three days include a weekend, by any chance?” She asked, her heart beating faster again.

He nodded, watching her closely. “What do you think, Gorgeous? Want to see my city?” 

“Definitely,” she agreed with a smile, leaning in. “If you miss it so much you have to create a beach in Kansas for yourself.”

“This was all for you,” he told her, kissing her nose.

She held her breath and looked at him for a moment before shifting closer again and kissing him deeply as she cupped the back of his neck.

He kissed her back, smiling against her mouth. Chase and catch accomplished, he thought.

* * * 

Things had worked out between them, after all. So well that exactly a year after they were introduced at the Kent farm, Chloe found herself saying ‘I do’ for the second time in her life. Except this time, it felt _right_. As expected, Cat had printed a couple of articles on them, and after that, they had started being followed by paparazzi everywhere they went. The pictures came with stories that said terrible things about them, but mostly her. And Chloe didn’t have to think hard to figure out who had been feeding the press all the lies. But the stories, the pictures and the media craziness had only brought them closer. 

If they had been inseparable before, they ended up sticking together even more to get through it. Their friendship grew stronger and they got to know each other even better. On top of that, they had been working incessantly with Impulse, Bart’s nickname, Aquaman and Boy Scout to shut Lex’s facilities down. Which meant that even when they weren’t together, they were communicating with each other about work. 

After only six months of having the apartment in Metropolis, Chloe gave it up and moved into the Clocktower. It made no sense for them to have two apartments when they always spent the night together and, on top of that, Lois and Clark decided they wanted a place in the city, so they moved in. 

Despite all that, she had been surprised when Oliver proposed, but she never hesitated before saying yes. The longer they were together, the more both of them realized that the reason their past relationships failed had nothing to do with who they were, or what they had done, it had simply been the fact that they weren’t with each other. 

The wedding itself had been incredibly simple. They celebrated it with just a dozen people, on Oliver’s private beach by his parent’s mansion in Star City and so far, everything had gone perfectly. Once they were done taking pictures, they started back toward their guests, but Chloe couldn’t stop looking at him, and smiling. “I believe we’re in the clear,” she told him, squeezing his hand as they walked together. “Anything that goes wrong now, it won’t matter anymore.” Despite how right it all felt, she had still been slightly apprehensive about something going wrong, because that was just what tended to happen at important events. 

“Is now a good time to say I told you so?” he teased softly, lacing his fingers through hers. 

“We have, what, another hour before we get to leave for our honeymoon? I think you can wait a while longer, just in case,” she teased, squeezing his hand.

He chuckled. “Fair enough. I suppose I can wait awhile longer.” 

“Thank you,” she said with a grin. “Although, I guess it doesn’t matter much anymore, it’s already done, anyway. You’re stuck with me.”

“And _you_ are stuck with _me_ ,” he told her with a grin of his own. “Also, you look beautiful. In case I haven’t told you that lately.” 

“I don’t think you have in the last ten minutes, slacker,” she teased with a smirk. Her self-confidence had improved a lot, too. Thanks to him.

“Damn, I’m definitely slipping. Well, you look gorgeous.” 

She lifted his hand to her lips and pressed a kiss to it, smiling at him as she did. “You look pretty amazing yourself.”

“We make one hell of a good looking couple.” He smiled back at her, spinning her around so she was facing him.

Chloe stepped closer to him easily and lifted her hands to his arms. “We do.”

Oliver kissed her softly on the mouth. “I love you.” 

“I love you,” she whispered against his lips, smiling.

“Come on, you two. There’s a party in here for you guys!” 

Chloe smiled a little as she pulled back, but kept her eyes on Oliver for a moment longer before focusing on her cousin. “We know, we’re enjoying it.”

“Well come on, or all the cake will be gone. I’ve had to fight to keep Clark _and_ Bart away from it,” Lois complained.

She reluctantly pulled away from Oliver, but reached for his hand. “Come on, let’s go be social.”

“But being social is so overrated,” he grumbled.

“I agree,” she said quietly. “But at least, we only have to do it for an hour.”

He drew in a breath and let it out slowly, nodding. “All right. Let’s do this.” 

With a deep breath, she nodded and walked with him toward the small crowd. This was perfect, too. Only a few people, people they cared about and who _knew_ them were there. “Alright, I heard it’s party time?”

“Let’s dance, Mrs. Queen,” he said lightly, nodding over at Bart, who was playing the DJ for the event. 

“Wait,” Lois said, standing atop a chair.

“Oh, here we go,” Chloe muttered to Oliver. 

Clark chuckled but placed a hand against Lois’ back to steady her. 

“So obviously these two are where they are now because I have amazing taste in friends, and I was blessed with an amazing cousin.” Lois beamed over at her. “Yes, that’s right. I introduced the happy couple a year ago today.” 

Chloe relaxed a little and smiled brightly at her cousin, nodding. “I’d like to point out I introduced her and Clark, so I can ditto all that on their wedding,” she added. 

“We have exceptionally good taste,” Lois agreed. “And this is the part where I have to make a bit of a confession.” 

Oliver arched an eyebrow, glancing from Lois to Chloe.

She glanced back at Oliver then focused on Lois, arching her eyebrows at her cousin. 

“It’s possible that I set up dinner that night in hopes that the two of you would realize how much you had in common and wind up hooking up.” She grinned, shrugging.

When Chloe looked at him, Clark nodded at her and smiled, shrugging too. “It worked.”

“Naturally.” Lois held up a glass of champagne. “So here’s to Chloe and Oliver for a lifetime of happiness, and to me because I’m awesome.” 

“Thank you,” Chloe said as AC handed her and Oliver glasses, too. Then she smiled at Oliver. “To Lois’ master plan working out.”

He smiled back at her, clinking his glass to hers. “To all of us, but especially you and me.” 

“To us,” she agreed, clinking her glass before sipping on it and keeping her eyes on his.

Oliver smiled. To forever.


End file.
